Telangana High Court to hear State’s petition on Governor’s approval for budget

The State Assembly session is scheduled to begin from Friday, with the State government presenting the budget the same day.

Hyderabad: A division bench of Telangana High Court comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Tukaramji will hear a lunch motion petition filed by the State government seeking directions to the Governor’s office to clear the file pertaining to the State budget, at 1 pm on Monday.

The State Assembly session is scheduled to begin from Friday, with the State government presenting the budget the same day.

Advocate General BS Prasad mentioned about the lunch motion stating that the State government was yet to receive the Governor’s approval to the budget to be presented on February 3. The State government filed a writ petition and the AG urged the bench for an immediate hearing as it pertains to ‘constitutional issue’.

Supreme Court senior advocate Dushyant Dave will appear on behalf of the State and present its contentions on the delay in the Governor’s approval for the State budget. The High court agreed to hear the matter and asked the AG to get the writ petition ready.

The State government circulated the budget file for the consent of Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on January 21. However, there has been no response from the Governor’s office even after a week, which is leading to unnecessary delay in making further arrangements for the budget presentation.

With less than four days left for the budget presentation and uncertainty over the approval of the file related to the budget from the Raj Bhavan, the State government had no option but to move the High Court. The State government is likely to contend that approval of the budget file was a constitutional obligation. Any deviation from the process would result in a constitutional crisis.