A total of ten bills are pending before the governor, with seven of these awaiting approval since September 2022.
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THE Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Union government on a petition filed by the Government of Telangana alleging inordinate delay on the part of Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan in giving her assent to bills passed by the two houses of the state legislative assembly.
The bench, which comprised Chief Justice of India Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices P.S. Narashima and J.B. Pardiwala, directed the serving of the copy of the petition to Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, who was present in the court.
The bench did not issue notice to the Secretary to the governor. It listed the matter on March 27. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave appeared for the state government.
In its plea, the Telangana government has stated that it has been constrained to knock on the doors of the court in view of what it describes as a constitutional impasse created on account of the refusal of the governor to act on several bills passed by the state legislature.
It argues that Article 200 of the Constitution mandates that the governor could assent or could withhold assent to a bill passed by the legislative assembly, in which case the bill should be returned together with the message requesting that the Houses reconsider the Bill for any specified provision and consider the desirability of introducing any such amendments as it might recommend in the message.
It seeks direction to the governor to provide her assent to the ten bills, of which seven have been pending since September 2022.
The petition refers the following bills which are awaiting assent from the governor: The Azamabad Industrial Area (Termination and Regulation of Leases) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Telangana Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and the University of Forestry Telangana Bill, 2022. Other Bills which the government mentioned included the Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, 2022, the Telangana Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Telangana Municipalities (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
