Tamil Nadu Governor case: Supreme Court recalls first President’s power struggle over Hindu Code Bill

Dr. Rajendra Prasad with the members of the central cabinet that are held in a government house in New Delhi in January 1950. Photo credit: Hindu files

The Supreme Court, in its judgment of the governor of Tamil Nadu, recalled how a children’s India observed with restlessness as its first president claimed to have power to exercise his discretion and consent to the bills even against the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.

A JB Pardiwala Judges and R. Mahadevan said when Dr. Rajendra Prasad expressed reservations on the Hindu Code bill, which proposes considerable reforms in the Hindu personal law, presented in 1951. The President had tried to affirm his independent authority to retain the assent of the Legina.

Editorial: Legal Myth: The Supreme Court and the governor of Tamil Nadu

The Jawhaharlal Nehru government had referred the issue to the first Attorney General of India, MC Setalvad, for an opinion.

“Mr. Setalvad clarified that the role of the president under the constitution of India was analogous to that of the British monarch and was expected to serve as a constitutional figure. The attorney general said that the President does not have to act against Pardiwala narrated in his judgment pronounced on April 8, but published at the end of March 11.

However, the judge said that the attorney general’s opinion was, with respect and magnanimity, “accepted” by the president and the consequent controversy between the prime minister and the president was buried.

However, the autobiography of Mr. Setalvad ‘My Life – Law and other small things’ suggested that his opinion had bothered President Prasad, an “Orthodox Hindu.”

“The opinions of Dr. Rajendra Prasad on the president’s powers persisted and, to the surprise of Nehru and Myelf, the issue raised in his speech by establishing the base of the construction of the Indian Law Institute in November 1960, Mr. Setalvad wrote in his memoracura.

Mr. Setalvad quoted President Prasad “pointing out” in his speech that “there is no disposition in the Constitution that in so many establish that the president will be obliged to act in accordance with the Council of his ministers.”

Also read | The Government of Tamil Nadu notifies 10 acts, after the verdict of the Supreme Court

The president, said the book, observed that the “Indian President, who was elected and subject to the accusation could not be compared to the British king. Dr. Prasad, who pronounced his speech in the presence of Mr. Nehru and Mr. Setalvad and emphasized that Embasised had emphasized. The British.” The president had also raised questions of why the written Constitution of India must incorporate the conventions of the “unwritten” British Constitution.

Mr. Setalvad said the president’s speech had created a “considerable stir in parliamentary circles and others.” However, never, the first law officer of the country’s law said that his opinion has resisted the proof of time.