Kerala governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar has questioned the need for a legislature and Parliament if the Supreme Court brings in constitutional amendments.

Arlekar’s comments come against the backdrop of the apex court setting aside Tamil Nadu governor R.N. Ravi’s decision to withhold 10 bills for the President’s consideration despite being passed by the Assembly twice. The apex court has also set a timeline for all governors to act on bills.

In an interview with a national daily, Arlekar referred to the top court’s action as judicial “overreach”.

“If the constitutional amendment is being done by the court, why are the legislature and Parliament required? The Supreme Court’s observation was understandable. But it was not implied in the Constitution that the governor must clear bills within a stipulated time. The bench that heard the case should have referred it to the constitution bench,” Arlekar said.

Backing his Tamil Nadu counterpart, Arlekar said Ravi might have his reason for withholding assent to the bills.

Arlekar’s remark did not go down well with the Left government in Kerala.

The CPI’s Kerala secretary, Binoy Vishwam, termed Arlekar’s stand “unfortunate”. He said Arlekar was following in the footsteps of his predecessor Arif Mohammed Khan, whose tenure was marked by his strained relationship with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his LDF government. Vishwam said Arlekar should be looking at the issue from the viewpoint of a governor and not a BJP leader.

When Khan was the governor, he had for long sat on several bills passed by the Kerala Assembly only to clear them at the fag end of his tenure.

In the interview, Arlekar said the apex court verdict would not have any impacton Kerala.

“There are no bills pending in Kerala. I share an excellent rapport with the Kerala chief minister and if there are any contentious issues, we would sit together and resolve it,” Arlekar added.