Pending bills: Telangana Govt moves Supreme Court against Governor

The State government on Thursday filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking directions to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to approve 10 key bills pertaining to the State which were pending with her.

Hyderabad: The State government on Thursday filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking directions to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to give her assent to 10 key government bills that were pending with her. The petition is likely to come up for hearing on Friday.

On behalf of the State government, Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari filed the writ petition where the Governor has been named as the respondent. The State government decided to approach the Supreme Court as some of these bills were kept pending for more than six months in the Raj Bhavan and were not being cleared by the Governor who had reportedly refused to clarify on the inordinate delay.

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In the petition, the State government said it was constrained to move the Apex Court under its extraordinary jurisdiction as conferred under Article 32 of the Constitution of India in view of a very frequent constitutional impasse created on account of refusal of the Governor to act on several Bills passed by the State Legislature. “These bills are pending since September 14 of 2022 till date for the assent of the Governor,” the State government’s petition said.

The State government’s petition said: “It is respectfully submitted that the Constitution cannot be kept static in the matter of legislative actions of the State and by reason of the Bills kept pending without any legitimate reasons results in chaotic situations nothing short of creating lawlessness and in all sobriety, the Hon’ble Governor should have acted in discharge of the Constitutional mandate of assenting to the Bills contemplated under the Constitutional scheme. There is no justifiable reason to resort to any other step other than assenting to the Bills as all the Bills conform to the Constitutional mandate as to the legislative competence or otherwise.”

The State government further argued that the matter assumes unprecedented significance and any further delay may lead to very unpleasant situations, ultimately affecting the governance and resultantly heavily inconveniencing the general public.

Earlier last month, the State government had approached the High Court seeking directions to the Governor to approve the State Budget for 2023-24. After the High Court’s intervention, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan gave her consent to the State Budget.

After Legislative Affairs Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy and officials called on her at Raj Bhavan, she had reportedly agreed to clear the pending bills after the officials clarify her doubts. However, there has been no positive response from her till date.