What is veto power of the President of India?
Q. Which of the following is true regarding strength and elections of legislative council?
1) President can exercise pocket veto in respect of state legislation also.
2) Pocket veto of Indian President is larger than that of the American President.
3) In qualified veto, the legislature cannot override the President.- Published on 28 Feb 17a. 1, 2
b. 1, 3
c. 2, 3
d. All of the above
ANSWER: 1, 2
- The President has the veto power over the bills passed by the Parliament.
- That mean he can withhold his assent to the bills.
- Veto is a Latin word and it means ‘to forbid’.
The reasons for this power is -
(a) to prevent hasty and ill-considered legislation passed by the Parliament; and
(b) to prevent an unconstitutional legislation.
The veto power in modern states can be of four types -
- The President of India is vested with three of them - absolute veto, suspensive veto and pocket veto.
- Indian President doesn’t have qualified veto. It is possessed by the President of America.
Absolute Veto -
- It means withholding his assent to a bill passed by the Parliament.
- The bill then ends and does not become an act.
Usually, this veto is exercised in the below mentioned cases -
1. in respect to private members’ bills; and
2. In respect to the government bills when the cabinet resigns after the passage of the bills and the new cabinet advises the President not to give his assent to such bills.
Qualified Veto -It means that the legislature can override the president with a higher majority.
Suspensive Veto -
- It means that I can be overridden by the legislature by simple majority.
- This veto is exercised when the President returns a bill for reconsideration of the Parliament.
- It does not end the bill but just delays the passage of the bill.
- But, if the bill is passed again by the Parliament with or without amendments and again presented to the President, the President has to give his assent to the bill.
- The President does not possess suspensive veto in the case of money bills.
Pocket Veto -
- It means to take no action on the bill that comes to him for his assent.
- The President neither ratifies nor rejects nor returns the bill, but simply keeps the bill pending for an indefinite period.
- Constitution does not prescribe any time-limit within which the President has to take the decision with respect to a bill presented to him for his assent.
- In USA, the President has to return the bill for reconsideration within 10 days.
- Thus it is said that the pocket of the Indian President is bigger than that of the American President.
- The 24th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1971 made it mandatory for the President to give his assent to a constitutional amendment bill.
Presidential Veto over State Legislation -
- The President has veto power with respect to state legislation also.
Under article 201, when a bill is reserved by the governor for the consideration of the President, the President has three choices -
(a) he may give his assent to the bill; or
(b) he may withhold his assent to the bill; or
(c) he may direct the governor to return the bill (except a money bill) for the reconsideration of the state legislature.
- Also, the President is not bound to give his assent to the reconsidered bill.
- Thus, the state legislature cannot override the veto power of the President.
- Also, the Constitution has not prescribed any time limit within which the President has to take decision with regard to a bill reserved by the governor for his consideration.
- Thus, the President can exercise pocket veto in respect of state legislation also.
