NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu on Monday filed a plea in the Supreme Court urging it to return the presidential reference related to timelines for clearing Bills, as "unanswered in whole" for it is intended to overrule the April 8, 2025 judgment, settling the issue.
Notably, Kerala also filed a similar plea for return of the reference unanswered.
Tamil Nadu, in its plea, described the reference as "headless and devoid of merits".
It contended the presidential reference of May 13, 2025 raised questions of law pertaining to interpretation of the powers of the Governor under the Article 200 of the Constitution and the powers of the President under the Article 201 of the Constitution alongwith ancillary issues, which have been directly answered by the Supreme Court recently in the State of Tamil Nadu Vs the Governor of Tamil Nadu (2025) in an exhaustive manner.
"The reference has been issued to overrule the decision and directions of this court in State of Tamil Nadu judgement and it is nothing but an appeal in disguise, which is impermissible in law as this court has no power to overrule its own judgements by way of Article 143," it said.
The application, settled by senior advocate P Wilson, also pointed out this court in Ahmedabad St Xavier's College Society Vs State of Gujarat, (1974) has opined that an opinion rendered by this court in a presidential reference under Article 143 of the Constitution is advisory in nature and not binding in subsequent cases, though it carries great persuasive value.
"Therefore, the present presidential reference is headless and devoid of merit," it said.
The state also pointed out, currently, no review or curative petition has been preferred by the Governor of Tamil Nadu against the April 8 judgement.
The reference ceases to raise any legitimate substantial questions of law leading to an expediency in obtaining the opinion of this court, the state government added.
