"Money bills cannot be passed by Assembly without prior approval by Governor," reiterates Kerala Governor

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], January 1 (ANI): Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Saturday once again came with clarification over the ongoing row over university bills issue in the state and again retorted that university bills and money bills cannot be passed by the Assembly without prior approval by the Governor.
"The University bills are money bills; money bills cannot be introduced in the Assembly without prior assent of the Governor. They were money bills because if you remove the Governor and appoint individual chancellors, some expenditure will be incurred and then you need the Governor's assent but in order to short circuit that constitutional provision, what they did is they placed the responsibility on the universities," said Khan.
"Universities are not getting money from any independent source, they are also getting money state and centre, so I asked them (Kerala govt) to clarify but they could not and went to Supreme Court, so I referred it to the president," added Khan.
Earlier, Kerala Government moved the Supreme Court challenging the Kerala High Court order that dismissed its plea against the Governor over withholding assent to bills indefinitely. After which Governor has referred it to the president.
According to Article 200, when a bill has been passed by the Legislative Assembly of a State or, in the case of a State having a Legislative Council, has been passed by both Houses of the Legislature of the State, it shall be presented to the Governor and the Governor shall declare either that he assents to the bill or that he withholds assent therefrom or that he reserves the bill for the consideration of the President. (ANI)