Veto Power of the Indian President| Important Points

Veto Power of the Indian President

When a bill is introduced in the Parliament, Parliament can pass the bill and before the bill becomes an act, it has to be presented to the Indian President for his approval. It is up to the President of India to either reject the bill, return the bill or withhold his/her assent to the bill. The choice of the President over the bill is called the veto power. The Veto Power of the President of India is guided by Article 111 of the Indian Constitution.

• Article 111 says that “When a Bill has been passed by the Houses of Parliament, it shall be presented to the President, and the President shall-
  • Give his assent to the Bill or
  • Withholds his assent or
  • Returns the Bill (except Money Bill) to the parliament with a message for reconsideration of the Bill
• President has no veto power in respect of a constitutional amendment bill. The 24th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1971 made it obligatory for the President to give his assent to a constitutional amendment bill.

Types of Veto Powers

The power of Veto is basically the power of the executive (through President) to override any act of the legislature. The veto powers can be classified into four categories-

1. Absolute Veto: The President can withhold assent to a Bill passed by the legislature.
2. Qualified Veto: President can withhold the assent but it can be overridden by the legislature with a higher majority.
3. Suspensive Veto: In this, presidential assent can be overridden by the legislature with an ordinary majority.
4. Pocket Veto: This applies when the President decides not to take any action on the Bill passed by the legislature.

Veto powers available to the President of India: The President of India has Suspensive Veto, Pocket Veto and Absolute Veto but does not have Qualified Veto (unlike the USA President).

Types of Bills	President’s Actions
With regard to Ordinary Bills	President can: Ratify, Return, Reject
With regard to Money Bills	President can: Ratify, Reject President cannot:Return
With regard to the Constitutional Amendment Bills	President can: Ratify President cannot: Reject, Return

Absolute Veto

This veto power when used by the President means that the Bill passed by the Parliament will not become law. Simply put, the Absolute veto of the President kills a bill before it becomes a law. In India, the President has exercised his absolute veto before. In 1954, it was exercised by Dr. Rajendra Prasad as a President and later in 1991, it was used by the then President R Venkataraman.

• Usually, President uses his absolute veto in the following two cases:
  • When the bill passed by the Parliament is a Private Member Bill.
  • When the cabinet resigns before President could give his assent to the bill. The new cabinet may advise the President to not give his assent to the bill passed by the old cabinet.

Absolute Veto used by Indian President till now:

• In 1954, an Absolute veto was exercised by Dr. Rajendra Prasad as a President when he withheld the assent for the PEPSU Appropriation Bill.
  • The reason was that the Bill was passed by the Parliament during the president’s rule in the state of PEPSU.
  • But when the bill was presented to the President for his assent, the President’s Rule was revoked.
• Again in 1991, President R Venkataraman withheld his assent to the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament (Amendment) Bill.
  • The reason was that the Bill was passed by the Parliament (on the last day before dissolution of Lok Sabha) without obtaining the previous recommendation of the President.

Suspensive Veto

The President of India uses a suspensive veto by returning the bill to the Parliament for its reconsideration. President can not use any of his veto powers when parliament resends the bill with or without any amendments. It means that the suspensive veto of the president can be overridden by the repassage of the bill by the Parliament.

• With respect to state bills, state legislature has no power to override the suspensive veto of President. The Governor can withhold the bill for the President’s consideration and even if state legislature resends the bill to governor and governor to President, he still can withhold his assent.
• When the Parliament resends the bill to the President, it has to follow only the ordinary majority in the houses and not the higher majority as required in USA).
• The President cannot exercise his suspensive veto in relation to Money Bill.

Pocket Veto

Article 111 of the Indian constitution does not prescribe any time limit for the president to give his assent to a bill passed by the Parliament. Using this situational discretion, President can practically postpone action on a bill for an indefinite time, and not return it to Parliament. This is the Pocket veto of the President.

• The bill is kept pending by the President for an indefinite period when he exercises his pocket veto.
• He neither rejects the bill nor returns the bill for reconsideration.
• Constitution does not give any time-limit to President within which he has to act upon the bill. Therefore, the President uses his pocket veto where he doesn’t have to act upon the bill.
• The President has no veto power when it comes to the constitutional amendment bills.
• Unlike the American President who has to resend the bill within 10 days, the Indian President has no such time-rule.

Example-

In 1986, Indian president Giani Zail Singh had exercised a pocket veto for the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill. The reason was that the Bill was facing criticism for violating the right to freedom of speech of the press. In the end, the Bill became dead when parliament decided not to move forward with it.

Veto Power over State Bills:

• The governor is empowered to reserve certain types of bills passed by the state legislature for the consideration of the President.
• The President can withhold his assent to such bills not only in the first instance but also in the second instance.
• Thus, the President enjoys absolute veto (and not suspensive veto) over state bills.
• Further, the President can exercise a pocket veto in respect of state legislation also.

Also, refer :

• Important Articles Of Indian Constitution
• Important Amendments Of The Indian Constitution
• Difference Between Fifth Schedule And Sixth Schedule
• Top 50 Science MCQs For Competitive Exams