Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai on Sunday (November 23, 2025) said the 2025 Presidential Reference opinion against tying Governors to timelines was not intended to shift the burden back on States to run pillar-to-post to get their recalcitrant Governors to pass pending Bills on time.
“If the Constitution does not provide for a timeline, we [judiciary] cannot read something that is not there. It is for the Parliament to do that,” CJI Gavai, who is retiring on November 23, said in a media interaction.
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He explained that an opinion given in a Presidential Reference did not overrule a judgment but only clarified the law.
“In a Presidential Reference, we cannot overrule a judgment, but we can lay down the law, and while laying down the law, we can observe that the law laid down in a particular manner [in a judgment] is not correct,” the CJI said.
