The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the writ petition filed by Telangana Government to seek directions for Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to clear ten bills which were passed by the legislative assembly, which are awaiting her assent.
The matter was mentioned before bench of CJI DY Chandrachud for urgent listing, saying that several bills are stuck.
The CJI has decided for matter to be listed on Monday.
The Government of Telangana said in the petition that it is constrained to move before the Supreme Court under its extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Constitution of India in view of “a very prequent constitutional impasse created on account of the refusal of the Governor to act on several bills passed by the State Legislature.
As per the petition, several key bills, including the Common Recruitment Board Bill, passed by the assembly in September 2022, still remains pending before the Governor.
Article 200 of the Constitution empowers the Governor to either assent to a Bill passed by the state legislature or to withhold assent therefrom or to reserve the Bill for consideration of the President.
This power is however to be exercised “as soon as possible”, the Government conteded.
The pending bills are:The Azamabad Industrial Area (Termination and Regulation of Leases) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Telangana Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and University of Forestry Telangana Bill, 2022.
There are some other Bills also which the Government mentioned included Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, 2022, Telangana Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (Amendment) Bill, 2023, Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Telangana Municipalities (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
The BRS government of Chandrashekar Rao accused the Governor of “sitting” on the Bills. Soundararajan had dismissed the allegations, stating that she was closely analyzing the Bills.
In response to the petition, she recently tweeted that friendly official visits & interactions would have been more helpful but the Chief Secretary did not approach her.
In a lighter tone she said that Rajbhavan is nearer than Delhi.