Telangana Govt vs Governor : Supreme Court To Hear State's Plea Over Delay In Giving Assent To Bills On March 20

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the writ petition filed by the Telangana Government seeking directions to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to clear ten bills passed by the legislative assembly, which are awaiting her assent.

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave mentioned the matter today before CJI DY Chandrachud for urgent listing, saying that "several bills are stuck". CJI agreed to list the matter on Monday.

The Telangana Government 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”.

Several key bills, including the Common Recruitment Board Bill, passed by the assembly in September 2022 is 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 following are the bills which are said to be pending :

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. Other Bills 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.

K. Chandrashekar Rao led BRS government accused the Governor of "sitting" on the Bills. Soundararajan had dismissed the allegations, stating that she was closely analyzing the Bills. Seemingly 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. "Rajbhavan is nearer than Delhi" she said.