New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on Thursday held that neither the President nor a Governor is bound by fixed timelines to act on bills passed by Parliament or a state legislature, and the concept of “deemed assent” when such timelines are missed is not permissible.

A Constitution Bench comprising B R Gavai (Chief Justice), along with Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, P S Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar observed that imposing a time-limit framework and creating a mechanism of “deemed assent” effectively hands over the constitutional role of the President or Governor to the Court—an outcome that runs counter to the Constitution’s design and the doctrine of separation of powers. ADVERTISEMENT

The Court pointed out that its earlier judgment of April 8, which had prescribed fixed timel

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