Supreme Court To Avoid Answering Question In Presidential Reference On Whether States Can File Article 32 Petition

The Supreme Court today orally said that it will not go into the 14th question of the Presidential Reference as to whether the Constitution bars the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to decide disputes between the Union Government and the State Governments, except by way of a suit under Article 131, and whether a State can file a writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution.

This comes after Justice PS Narasimha yesterday had asked why the Court needs to go into this when the issues are mostly related to the assent of the President and the Governor on Bills. 

Today, answering Justice Narasimha's query, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the issue can be "kept open" and the Court does not need to answer that.

He said: "One question which Justice Narasimha initially said that Articles 32 and 131, yourship may perhaps not like to answer. It can be kept open." 

Adding that this is a dispute between two federating units, he submitted: "All federal questions are amenable under Article 131. Tomorrow, your lordship may have a writ petition by one State against another State in regards to some other dispute. For that, Article 131 is the constitutional provision that all federal issues amongst federating units States-Centre, State-State will be adjudicated only by this Court, but under Article 131. But whether the Article 32 petition will lie because it lies only for fundamental rights violations."

Remarking that they face all sorts of Article 32 petitions, Chief Justice of India BR Gavai said: "We will keep it for some other time....We know what happens to Article 131 suits."

SG Mehta responded that since this is a Presidential Reference which has its own sanctity, he will take instructions by Tuesday on this.

A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and comprising Justice Surya Kant, Justice Vikram Nath, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice AS Chandurkar was hearing a Reference made by President Droupadi Murmu concerning the powers of the Governor and the President under Articles 200(assent to Bills) and 201(bills reserved for consideration) of the Constitution.