Putrajaya has no plans to restore the mandatory royal assent requirement for new parliamentary bills, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Azalina Othman Said.

In a parliamentary written reply last week, she said the government has not come up with such proposal to amend the Federal Constitution for this purpose.

"If such a proposal is to be implemented, it needs extensive and in-depth research before any amendment (can be) done to existing provisions of the law," she said.

She was responding to N Surendran (PKR-Padang Serai) who asked if the government intends to amend Clause 4(a) of Article 66 of the Federal Constitution to make royal assent mandatory for a bill to become law.

In 1994, the government under then prime minister Dr Mahahir Mohamad passed amendments to the Federal Constitution to allow any bill that has been passed by both Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara to automatically become law within 30 days even if the royal assent was withheld.

In August 2016, however, Mahathir apologised for curtailing the Yang Di Pertuan Agong's powers, saying this had allowed for the controversial National Security Council (NSC) Act to come into force without royal assent.

Expressing fears that the NSC Act concentrated too much power with regards to security matters onto the prime minister, on Feb 17, 2016, the Conference of Rulers asked for the NSC Bill to be revisited but this was not done.