Supreme Court - Daily Orders
In Re : Assent, Withholding Or ... vs Dr. Abhishek Singhvi on 20 November, 2025
ITEM NO.1501 COURT NO.1 SECTION XVII-A
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
SPECIAL REFERENCE NO(S). 1/2025
IN RE : ASSENT, WITHHOLDING OR RESERVATION OF BILLS BY THE
GOVERNOR AND THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA
Date : 20-11-2025 This matter was called on for pronouncement of
opinion today.
By Courts Motion
For Petitioner(s) :
For Respondent(s)/Applicant(s) :
Dr. Abhishek Singhvi, Sr. Adv. Mr. P Wilson, Sr. Adv.
Mr. T. Harish Kumar, AOR Mr. Apoorv Malhotra, Adv. Mr. Sidharth Seem, Adv.
Mr. Deepak Jain, Adv.
Mr. Uday Bhatia, Adv.
Mrs. Aiyushi Daga, Adv.
Mr. Shubham P. Chopra, Adv. Mr. Lokesh Krishna, Adv. Mr. Aditya Ojha, Adv.
Mr. Goutham Bhaskar, Adv. Mr. Aravind A, Adv.
Mr. Saran Raghunandhan S, Adv. Mr. Ayush Kashyap, Adv.
Mr. Sameer Abhyankar, AOR Ms. Ripul Swati Kumari, Adv. Ms. Yachna Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Rahul Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Aakash Thakur, Adv.
Mr. Krishna Rastogi, Adv. Mr. Aryan Srivastava, Adv.
Mr. K.M. Nataraj, Sr. Adv. Mr. Pitambar Acharya, Advocate General Signature Not Verified Ms. Samapika Biswal, AOR Digitally signed by NARENDRA PRASAD Date: 2025.11.20 Mr. Prasenjeet Mohapatra, Adv. 18:26:26 IST Reason: Ms. Soumya Sannidhanam, Adv.
Ms. Mehak Kumar, Adv.
1Mr. Vatsal Joshi, Adv.
Mr. Chitransh Sharma, Adv. Mr. Yogya Rajpurohit, Adv. Ms. Rithika Khatri, Adv. Mr. Anuj Udupa, Adv.
Ms. Shailja Singh, Adv.
Mr. Ruturaj Satapathy, Adv. Ms. Sukanya Das, Adv.
Ms. Visakha Raghuram, Adv. Mr. Somkeerti V Singhdeo, Adv.
Mr. Sidharth Luthra, Sr. Adv. Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv.
Ms. Rajni Gupta, Adv.
Mr. Karl P Rustomkhan, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Yadav, Adv.
Mr. S Niranjan Reddy, Sr. Adv. Ms. Devina Sehgal, AOR Mr. Kumar Vaibhaw, Adv.
Mr. Vineet George, Adv.
Ms. Akhila, Adv.
Ms. Rajeswari Mukherjee, Adv. Mr. Salar Aatif, Adv.
Mr. Pradyuman Kaistha, Adv. Mr. Yatharth Kansal, Adv. Mr. Dhananjay Yadav, Adv.
Mr. Harish Salve, Sr. Adv. Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Adv. Mr. Bharat Bagla, Adv.
Mr. Sourav Singh, Adv.
Mr. Aditya Krishna, Adv. Mr. Adarsh Dubey, Adv.
Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, AOR Mr. Anil Shrivastav, A.A.G. Ms. Disha Singh, AOR Ms. Eliza Bar, Adv.
Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv.
Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Deepayan Dutta, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv.
2Mr. Prashant Kumar Umrao, AOR Mr. Rishesh Sikarwar, Adv. Mr. Chandan Kumar Singh, Adv.
Mr. Pashupathi Nath Razdan, AOR Ms. Maitreyee Jagat Joshi, Adv. Mr. Astik Gupta, Adv.
Ms. Akanksha Tomar, Adv. Mr. Rahul, Adv.
Mr. K.M. Natraj,ASG Ms. Indira Bhaskar,Adv. Mr. Sharath Nambiar,Adv. Mr. Vinayak Sharma,Adv. Mr. Vatsal Joshi,Adv.
Ms. Satvika Thakur,Adv. Ms. Nikita Capoor,Adv.
Mr. Chitransh Sharma,Adv. Mr. Anuj Srinivas Udupa,Adv. Mr. Yogya Rajpurohit,Adv. Mr. S. Subramaniam,Adv. Mr. Aayush Saklani,Adv. Mr. Ritika Ranjan,Adv.
Samapika Biswal,Adv.
Ms. Ruchira Goel, AOR Mr. R. Venkataramani, Attorney General for India Mr. Tushar Mehta Ld, Solicitor General Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR Mr. Aman Mehta, Adv.
Mr. Kanu Agarwal, Adv.
Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv. Ms. Sansriti Pathak, Adv. Mr. Bhuvan Kapoor, Adv.
Mr. Madhav Singhal, Adv. Mr. Arkaj Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Mili Joy Baxi, Adv.
Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv.
Ms. Astha Singh, Adv.
Ms. Rajeshwari Shankar, Adv.
Mr. B.S. Rajesh Agrajitr,DAG Mr. Siddharth Goswami,Adv. Ms. Priya Nagar,Adv.
Mr. Arjun,Adv.
Ms. Ishica Neogi,Adv.
Mr. Mahesh Jethmalani, Sr.Adv. Mr. Apporv Kurup,AAG Mr. Ravi Sharma,DAG Ms. Ankita Sharma, AOR 3 Mr. Arjun D. Singh, Adv.
Ms. Ishika Neogi, Adv.
Mr. Apoorv Shukla,Adv.
Mr. R. Venkataramani, Attorney General for India Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. Anandh Venkataramani, A.S.G. Mr. Aman Mehta, Adv.
Ms. Ameyavikrama Thanvi, Adv. Deboshree Mukherjee, Adv. Chitvan Singhal, Adv.
Abhishek Kumar Pandey, Adv. Raman Yadav, Adv.
Kartikay Aggarwal, Adv. Oorjasvi Goswami, Adv.
Yamika Khanna, Adv.
Anjali Agrawal, Adv.
Rishit Vimadalal, Adv.
Devvrat Singh, Adv.
Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Adv.
Mr. Guru Krishna Kumar, Sr. Adv. Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Nachiketa Joshi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Samar Vijay Singh, AOR Mr. Aditi Tyagi, Adv.
Ms. Sindhoora Vnl, Adv.
Mr. Vikas C Shukla, Adv.
Mr. Ashwin K, Adv.
Mr. Vishesh Goyal, Adv.
Mr. Praneet Pranav, Adv. Mr. Amit Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Bhakti Vardhan Singh, Adv. Mr. Vikas Singh Jangra, Adv. Mr. Pawan Kishore Singh, Adv. Mr. Patiraj Yadav, Adv.
Ms. Sabarni Som, Adv.
Mr. Aman Dev Sharma, Adv. Mr. Gaj Singh, Adv.
Mr. Amit Ojha, Adv.
Mr. Prashant Singh, Advocate General Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, AOR Mr. Pashupati Nath Razdan, Adv. Ms. Mrinal Elker Mazumdar, Adv. Mr. Yashraj Singh Bundela, Adv.
Mr. Amit Kumar, Sr. Adv., Advocate General Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, AOR Mr. Shaurya Sahay, Adv.
4Mr. Luv Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Aditya S. Pandey, Adv. Mr. Aditya Kumar, Adv.
Mrs. Rekha Bakshi, Adv.
Mr. Sudarshan Singh Rawat, AOR Ms. Saakshi Singh Rawat, Adv. Mr. Sunny Sachin Rawat, Adv.
Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Gopal Subramanium, Sr. Adv. Mr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Shashikiran Sheety, Advocate General Mr. Prateek K Chadha, A.A.G. Mr. Muhammad Ali Khan, A.A.G. Mr. Nishant Patil, A.A.G. Mr. Aman Panwar, A.A.G. Mr. Avishkar Singhvi, A.A.G. Mr. Naveen Sharma, AOR Mrs. Swati Bhushan Sharma, Adv. Mr. Sk Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv.
Ms. Gauri Subramanium, Adv. Mr. Pavan Bhushan, Adv.
Mr. Jaivardhan Singh, Adv. Mr. Omar Hoda, Adv.
Ms. Rupali Samuel, Adv.
Ms. Sumedha Rai Sarkar, Adv. Ms. Adoorya Harish, Adv. Mr. Sreekar Aechuri, Adv. Mr. Aniket Chauhaan, Adv. Ms. Eesha Bakshi, Adv.
Mr. Arjun Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Kamran Khan, Adv.
Ms. Payal Gola, Adv.
Mr. Hasan Abbas, Adv.
Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Kunal Vajani, Adv.
Mr. Debanjan Mandal, Adv. Mr. Kunal Mimani, AOR Mr. Kartikey Bhatt, Adv. Ms. Shraddha Chirania, Adv. Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv. Mr. Rishabh Parikh, Adv. Mr. Abhijit Chimni, Adv. Ms. Manisha Singh, Adv.
Ms. Rupali Samuel, Adv.
Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G. Mr. Prabhas Bajaj, Adv.
5Mr. Saurabh Rajpal, Adv. Mr. Kartikeya Asthana, Adv. Ms. Sonali Gaur, Adv.
Mr. Rangasaran Mohan, Adv. Mr. Amarpal Singh Dua, Adv. Mr. Milind Rai, Adv.
Ms. Shalini Singh, Adv.
Mr. Amogh Bansal, Adv.
Ms. Saubhagya Sundriyal, Adv. Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, AOR Mr. Arman Roop Sharma, Adv. Ms. Shimpy Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Priya Pachouri, Adv. Mr. Mohd.aman Khan Afghani, Adv. Mr. Nishkarsh Kumar Pharswal, Adv. Ms. Priyanka Dubey, Adv. Ms. Saumya Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Vivek Tiwari, Adv.
Dr. Vinod Kumar Tewari, AOR Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. Chinmoy Pradip Sharma, Sr. A.A.G. Ms. Diksha Rai, AOR Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, Adv.
Ms. Atiga Singh, Adv.
Ms. Purvat Wali, Adv.
Mr. Piyush Vyas, Adv.
Mr. Irfan Hasieb, Adv.
Mr. Vijay Deora, Adv.
Mr. Aditya Agarwal, Adv.
Mr. P. Wilson,Sr.Adv.
Mr. A. Mariarputham,Sr.Adv. Mr. Richardson Wilson,Adv. Mr. Apoorv Malhotra,Adv. Mr. Lokesh Krishna,Adv. Mr. Aditya Ojha,Adv.
Mr. Goutam Bhaskar,Adv. Mr. Aravind A.,Adv.
Mr. Saran Raghunandhan,Adv. Mr. Ayush Kashyap,Adv.
Mr. Raktim Gogoi,Adv.
Mr. Kartikeya Singh,Adv. Mr. Ankit Sharma,Adv.
Mr. Mridul Gupta,Adv.
Ms. Anuradha Arputham,AOR Mr. Mukesh Kumar Singh,Adv. Mr. Narendra Kumar Singh,Adv. Mr. Kadam Hans,Adv.
6Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. Vinay Navare, Sr. Adv. Mr. A. Radhakrishnan, AOR Mr. Shivkumar, Adv.
Mr. K.K. Venugopal, Sr. Adv. Mr. K. Gopalakrishna Kurup, Adv.General/Kerala Mr. P.V. Surenderanath, Sr. Adv. Mr. C. K. Sasi, AOR Dr. Kk Geetha, Adv.
Mr. Sidhant Kohli, Adv.
Ms. Meena K Poulose, Adv. Mr. Sawan Kumar Shukla, Adv.
Mr. K N Balgopal,Adv.General/Nagaland Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv. Mr. Prang Newmai, Adv.
Mr. Vitso Rio, Adv.
Ms. Yanmi Phazang, Adv.
Mr. Maninderjit Singh Bedi, Advocate General Mr. Shadan Farasat, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vivek Jain, A.A.G. Mr. Rajat Bhardwaj, A.A.G. Mr. Mohd Irshad, A.A.G. Mr. Maninder Singh, A.A.G. Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR Mr. Mohit Siwach, Adv.
Mr. Sadiq Noor, Adv.
Ms. Natasha Maheshwari, Adv. Mr. Kaustubh Khanna, Adv. Mr. Kaustubh Chaturvedi, Adv. Mr. Samman Vardhan Gautam, Adv. Ms. Varisha Sharma, Adv. Mr. Harshit Anand, Adv.
Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR Mr. Shivam Singh, Adv.
Mr. Divyansh Mishra, Adv. Mr. Ishwar Singh, Adv.
Mr. Kumar Saurav, Adv.
Mr. Yoshit Jain, Adv.
Mr. Shubham Janghu, Adv.
Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vishal Sinha, Adv.
Mr. Shrutanjaya Bhardwaj, Adv. Mr. Madhav Gupta, Adv.
Ms. Anindita Mitra, AOR 7 Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Gaurav Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Vishal Sinha, Adv.
Mr. Pradeep Kumar Yadav, Adv. Mr. Shailendra Mani Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Sanjiv Misra, Adv.
Mr. Shrutanjaya Bhardwaj, Adv. Mr. Naman Shrestra, Adv. Mr. Anjali Kumari, Adv.
Ms. Pooja Shilpkar, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Tyagi, Adv. Mr. Madhav Gupta, Adv.
Mr. Chand Qureshi, AOR Mr. Nishant Verma, Adv.
Mr. Mukesh Kumar Thalour, Adv. Mr. Manjeet Singh, Adv.
Mr. Vishal Tiwari, Adv.
Mr. Mujahid Ahmad, Adv.
Mr. Himanshu Gupta, Adv. Mr. Keshav Choudhary, Adv. Mr. Md.imran Siddiqui, Adv.
Mr. Sudiep Srivastava,Adv. Mr. Pranav Sachdeva,AOR Ms. Neha Ratha,Adv.
Mr. P. Rohit Ram,Adv.
Mr. Sanyam Jain,Adv.
Ms. Khushnoo singhal,Adv.
Mr. A.D.N. Rao,Sr.Adv.
Dr. Suvidutt M.S.,Adv.
Ms. Deepika Singh,Adv.
Ms. Disha Puri,Adv.
Mr. Varun K. Chopra,Adv. M/s. VKC Law Offices Mr. Pratik R. Bombarde,Adv. Mr. Devendra Singh,Adv. Mr. Abhishek Kumar,Adv. Mr. Rohit Verma,Adv.
Ms. Kirti Anand,Adv.
Mr. Jitendra Kumar,Adv. Mr. Ashish Bansal,Adv.
Mr. Barun Kumar Sinha, Adv. Mrs. Pratibha Sinha, Adv. Mr. Sneh Vardhan, Adv.
Mr. Chhail Bihari Singh, Adv. Mr. Rakesh Mudgal, Adv.
Mr. Pankaj Kumar Shukla, Adv.
8Mr. Niraj, Adv.
Mr. Ritu Raj, Adv.
Mrs. Kanika, Adv.
Mr. Sidhant Thakur, Adv. Mr. Rahul G Tanwani, Adv. Mr. Anantha Narayana M.g., AOR Mr. V.c. Shukla, Adv.
Mrs. Sindoora Vnl, Adv.
Mrs. Aditi Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Vaibhav Singh, Adv.
Mr. Vivek Sharma, AOR Dr. Vijay Kumar Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Charu Mathur, AOR Ms. Avani Bansal, Adv.
Ms. Parika Singh, Adv.
Mr. Suva Batabyal, Adv.
Mr. Dhruv Kaushik, Adv.
Ms. Sayyed Gulerana Shabbir Ali, Adv.
1. The Bench comprising Hon’ble Mr. Justice B.R. Gavai, Chief Justice of India, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Surya Kant, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Vikram Nath, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Hon’ble Mr. Justice Atul S. Chandurkar pronounced the opinion of the Court.
2. In terms of the opinion, the operative part is extracted below:-
“XI. Opinion of the Court on the Presidential Reference.
165. In light of our findings and observations above, we deem it appropriate to summarise our conclusions on this Presidential Reference:
165.1 The Governor has three constitutional options before him, under Article 200, namely - to assent, reserve the Bill for the consideration of the President, or withhold assent and return the Bill to the Legislature with comments. The first proviso to Article 200 is bound to the substantive part of the provision, and restricts the existing options, rather than offering a fourth option.9
Pertinently, the third option – to withhold assent and return with comments – is only available to the Governor when it is not a Money Bill.
165.2 The Governor enjoys discretion in choosing from these three constitutional options and is not bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, while exercising his function under Article 200.
165.3 The discharge of the Governor’s function under Article 200, is not justiciable. The Court cannot enter into a merits review of the decision so taken. However, in glaring circumstances of inaction that is prolonged, unexplained, and indefinite – the Court can issue a limited mandamus for the Governor to discharge his function under Article 200 within a reasonable time period, without making any observations on the merits of the exercise of his discretion.
165.4 Article 361 of the Constitution is an absolute bar on judicial review in relation to personally subjecting the Governor to judicial proceedings. However, it cannot be relied upon to negate the limited scope of judicial review that this Court is empowered to exercise in situations of prolonged inaction by the Governor under Article 200. It is clarified that while the Governor continues to enjoy personal immunity, the constitutional office of the Governor is subject to the jurisdiction of this court.
165.5 In the absence of constitutionally prescribed time limits, and the manner of exercise of power by the Governor, it would not be appropriate for this Court to judicially prescribe timelines for the exercise of powers under Article 200.
10165.6 For similar reasoning as held with respect to the Governor, the President’s assent under Article 201 too, is not justiciable.
165.7 For the same reasons as indicated in the context of the Governor under Article 200, it is clarified that the President, too, cannot be bound by judicially prescribed timelines in the discharge of functions under Article 201.
165.8 In our constitutional scheme, the President is not required to seek advice of this Court by way of reference under Article 143, every time a Governor reserves a Bill for the President’s assent. The subjective satisfaction of the President is sufficient. If there is a lack of clarity, or the President so requires advice of this Court on a Bill, it may be referred under Article 143, as it has been done on numerous previous occasions.
165.9 The decisions of the Governor and President under Articles 200 and 201 respectively, are not justiciable at a stage anterior into the law coming into force. It is impermissible for the Courts to undertake judicial adjudication over the contents of a Bill, in any manner, before it becomes law. Pertinently, discharge of its role under Article 143, does not constitute ‘judicial adjudication’.
165.10 The exercise of constitutional powers and the orders of the President/Governor cannot be substituted in any manner under Article 142, and we hereby clarify that the Constitution, specifically Article 142 even, does not allow for the concept of ‘deemed assent’ of Bills.
11165.11 Question 11 is answered in accordance with our opinion tendered on Question 10, i.e., there is no question of a law made by the State Legislature coming into force without assent of the Governor under Article 200. The Governor’s legislative role under Article 200 cannot be supplanted by another constitutional authority.
165.12 We have already indicated in our opinion, that Question 12 relating to the Article 145(3) and the composition of benches in this Court that hear cases of constitutional importance is irrelevant to the functional nature of this reference, and is returned unanswered.
165.13 We have also indicated in our opinion that Question 13 concerning the power under Article 142 is overly broad, and not possible to answer in a definitive manner. Our opinion on the scope of Article 142 in the context of the functions of the Governor and President has already been answered as a part of Question 10.
165.14 Question 14 – pertaining to this Court’s jurisdiction to resolve disputes between the Union and State Governments outside of Article 131 – is also found to be irrelevant to the functional nature of the reference and hence returned unanswered.” (NARENDRA PRASAD) (ANJU KAPOOR) DEPUTY REGISTRAR ASSISTANT REGISTRAR 12