The Supreme Court has given the centre and governors three weeks to respond, and has also directed petitioning states to submit a joint notice. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the centre and secretaries to the governors of Bengal and Kerala, on the basis of pleas - long-standing and frequent - by the states, claiming delays in granting assent to pending bills and referring those to President Droupadi Murmu. A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud issued notices to the Home Ministry and senior aides of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and his Bengal counterpart, CV Ananda Bose. "...bills are pending for eight months. I am challenging the reference (of the bills) to the President. There is confusion among governors... they keep bills pending. This is against the Constitution..." senior advocate KK Venugopal, appearing for the Kerala government, said. " We are issuing notice to Additional Chief Secretary to Governor and Union," the court said. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi then spoke up, "I represent Bengal... we will frame common issues", to which the Chief Justice said, "Issue notice in the Bengal case as well (with) liberty to implead union government. We will issue notice to Governor and Union Home Ministry." "Every time the court hears this... some bills are cleared," Mr Singhvi remarked, "Same happened during Tamil Nadu case as well."

The Supreme Court has given the centre and governors three weeks to respond. The court also directed petitioning states to submit a joint notice. In March, Kerala's ruling CPIM moved the Supreme Court against the Governor's decision to reserve seven bills for review by the President. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's government called Mr Khan's move "manifestly arbitrary" and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. "Equally... advice by Union of India to the President to withhold assent for four bills, which are wholly within domain of the State, while disclosing no reason whatsoever, is also manifestly arbitrary and violates Article 14 of the Constitution," the state government had said. These seven bills have been pending with the Governor for two years, the state added. That was not the first time the state and Governor had clashed on this issue. In November the court questioned Governor Khan for "sitting" on the bills and said it might be forced to consider guidelines to establish when governors can refer bills to the President. The court had then been told the Governor had cleared only one of eight pending bills.