India, Nov. 20 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday held that April's two-judge bench ruling in the Tamil Nadu governor case, which prescribed timelines for gubernatorial and presidential action on bills, generated "a state of doubt and confusion" on several core constitutional questions. Stressing that such uncertainty could not be allowed to persist, the five-judge Constitution bench said that an authoritative opinion was necessary to restore clarity on the functioning of key constitutional offices under Articles 200 and 201.

At the outset, the bench comprising Chief Justice of India Bhushan R Gavai and justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, PS Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar underscored that the issues raised in the presidential reference had ...