The Supreme Court of India decision on Thursday holding that it cannot prescribe deadlines for the president or governors to decide on granting assent to bills has significant implications for Indian federalism.

The court said that since the Constitution itself does not lay down any time limits for such decisions, the judiciary cannot step in to set up timelines for either the governor or the President.

This view came in response to a presidential reference seeking the court’s guidance on a Supreme Court judgment in April that had come down hard on the fact that the governor of Tamil Nadu was sitting on bills passed by the state assembly.

The court had passed the legislations, describing this as “deemed assent”. It prescribed deadlines for governors to decide what they want to do with b

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