y Bill is passed by the Legislative Assembly and in that state, then this bill would be forwarded to the Legislative Council for its recommendations. The same bill should be returned to the assembly within fourteen days from the date of receiving the bills. The assembly can either accept the recommendation or can deny any recommendations according to the discretion of the assembly. The same bill is then again sent to the Council and the Council has a time period of fourteen days to pass the bill. In case the Legislative Council fails to do so, then it is deemed to be passed by both the Houses.
Assent to Bills: Article 200
Till now we have seen how a Bill gets assent from Houses of the state legislature. After this, Article 200 comes into play. As mentioned in Article 200, the bill after getting assent of both Houses and is then sent to Governor. It then comes under the discretion of the Governor whether to give assent or withhold his assent. He/she can also reserve assent for the consideration of the President.
Here the Governor has to return this bill to the State Legislature as soon as possible with the message of recommendation. Here again, these recommendations can be either accepted or rejected by the legislature and once again this bill is again sent to the Governor for his confirmation. Now he has only two options left with him, he can either give assent to this bill or can reserve it for further consideration from the President.
Bills reserved for President’s consideration: Article 201
The bill which is reserved for the consideration of the President should have reasonable grounds for being reserved. Any bill can be reserved by the Governor which he/ she thinks is against the law. The further procedure of this Bill is given in Article 201 of the Indian Constitution. The Bill which is reserved for the President for his/her consideration should either be given assent by him/her. The President can also withhold his/her assent. The President then directs the Governor to return the bill to the House/Houses of Legislature with a message which was sent earlier by the Governor (according to Article 200 of the constitution). This bill should be reconsidered by the State Legislature within a period of six months. And again if the bill is passed by both Houses, then it is again presented before the President for its consideration.
An example of the contradiction to this Article came in the case of K.P. Kochanujan Thirumulpad vs State Of Kerala where a petition was filed and a question was asked on the legality of a bill which was passed before any direction came from the President during the period of reconsideration. Here the petition was rejected and it was held that there are certain restrictions/ grounds on which Article 201 does not apply.
Language to be used in the Legislation: Article 210
All the proceedings in the State Legislature like the law-making process should be in the official language or in the language of the state or in Hindi or in English. It is given in Article 210 of the Indian Constitution. Here, under the special circumstances the Chairman or Deputy Chairman may allow the member to use other languages (who cannot express himself/herself in any of the languages as mentioned above in this article). Here, the role of language which is to be used in the legislation becomes very vital. However, there is a provision that determines that if the State Legislature does not make any law for using the English language even after fifteen years, then the word English from Article 210 will get eliminated by itself.
Procedure in Financial Matters: Articles 202 to 207
The State Legislature of every state follows a special procedure in the matters related to finance. These procedures are given in Article 202 to Article 207 of the Indian Constitution. The procedure which is mentioned in these articles are as follows:
- Article 202 (Annual Financial Statement): It is the duty of the Governor to lay down the estimated receipts and expenditure of the State for that year. It is known as the Annual Financial Statement.
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