Kerala Governor refuses to sign 11 ordinances citing democracy

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], August 9 : A fresh round of rift between the Kerala government and Governor Arif Mohammad Khan surfaced after the latter refused to give his assent to 11 ordinances that lapsed on Monday without studying them in detail.
Talking to reporters in New Delhi on Monday, the Governor said he was against the "ordinance raj" as it was against the very spirit of democracy. He said he will not give assent to re-promulgation of these ordinances without going through them in detail.
The Supreme Court had passed strictures against the practice of ordinances and promulgating them without ratification of the legislature, Khan said.
"Ruling through ordinance is against the spirit of democracy. I need time to go through them. During certain emergencies, you can bring an ordinance, but it has to be ratified by the assembly. You cannot promulgate ordinances time and again and then what is the need of the legislative assembly," he said.
Speaking on this development, KS Radhakrishnan, BJP State Vice President said, "Ordinance is not the way of ruling in democracy. In a democratic setup, every act should be cleared by the legislature. But if a necessity and emergency arises, then the government is free to promulgate an ordinance. But even at that time, the govt must be able to satisfy the necessity and emergency of such an ordinance to the Governor. So if what the Governor said is true that they altogether sent 11 ordinances. It is nothing but brutal and it is fatal to the practice of democracy. Because in a democratic setup, they cannot take the Governor to sign all the ordinances. The assembly was in session. And they just concluded the session."
"Why they failed to get through all these ordinances? They could extend the number of sittings and get through these ordinances since they have got a majority. Why? The primary thing is that if you promulgate an ordinance, there is no discussion at all. An ordinance at that stage has been prepared only by the bureaucrats. It must be discussed in detail in the assembly to make it clear that it is so essential and it goes in tune within the essence of the Constitution of India," said the BJP leader.
The BJP leader said, "So the major aspect related to an enactment has not been made in the case of Ordinance. And if that too for the 11 ordinances, no Governor, whoever he may be, should never affix his signature on all these ordinances. So whatever has been done by the Governor is absolutely correct. Is it practically and humanly possible to go through all the 11 ordinances before he left for Delhi and he got 2 or 3 hours. It was quite nonsensical to send such a large number of ordinances to a Governor by the State Government. So the State Government is on the wrong side of the letter and spirit of the Constitution hence the Governor is not expected to sign these ordinances."