Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the Tamil Nadu government, said there cannot be an “intra court appeal directly or indirectly” by filing the reference under Article 143.”This court is being asked to change the contents and substance of a judgment between two different parties and this is a subversion of institutional integrity. This is an appeal howsoever nicely you camouflage it,” Singhvi said.Justice Narasimha said, “The adjudicatory decision stands on complete footing rather than advisory. Show us one judgment where in a division bench, a reference is not tenable. We are not deciding the issue whether Tamil Nadu is correct or not,” the CJI asked.At the outset, the CJI said the bench would first examine objections to the maintainability of the reference under Article 143 of the Constitution.Attorney General R Venkataramani opposed the pleas of Venugopal and Singhvi.The hearing is underway.On July 22, the top court observed that the issues raised in the presidential reference will affect the “entire country”.On April 8, the apex court delivered a verdict on the powers of the governor in dealing with bills passed by the Tamil Nadu government.The verdict, for the first time, prescribed that the president should decide on the bills reserved for her consideration by the governor within three months from the date on which such a reference is received.In a five-page reference, President Murmu posed 14 questions to the Supreme Court and sought to know its opinion on the powers of the governor and president under Articles 200 and 201 in dealing with bills passed by the state legislature.The verdict set a timeline for all governors to act on the bills passed by the state assemblies and ruled that the governor does not possess any discretion in the exercise of functions under Article 200 in respect to any bill presented to them and must mandatorily abide by the advice tendered by the council of ministers.It said state governments can directly approach the Supreme Court if the president withholds assent on a bill sent by a governor for consideration.
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