The Telangana government moved the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking directions to governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to give her assent to ten key bills passed by the state legislature that are pending with her, people familiar with the matter said. The petition, filed by chief secretary Shanti Kumari, is expected to come up before the top court on Friday.
The chief secretary said that the state government was forced to approach the Supreme Court under Article 32 due to the constitutional impasse created on account of the governor’s refusal to act on several bills passed by the state legislature. Article 32 gives citizens the right to approach the top court when their fundamental rights are violated.
“In a parliamentary democracy the Governor has no discretion to defer or delay necessary assent as required on the bills presented for assent. Any refusal on the part of the Governor including any delay will defeat the parliamentary democracy and the will of the people,” the plea was quoted as saying by legal news portal “Bar and Bench”.
The petition further highlighted Article 163 of the Constitution, which provides for a council of ministers to assist and advise the governor on all important matters to be dealt with in a state.
“The Governor may assent or may withhold assent in which case the bill must be returned together with the message requesting that the houses will reconsider the bill for any specified provision and will consider the desirability of introducing any such amendments as it may recommend in his message. If the bill is so returned, the houses are required to reconsider accordingly and once passed with or without the amendments so suggested and presented to the Governor for assent, the Governor shall not withhold the assent,” it said.
The petition, therefore, added that the failure of the governor to comply with the constitutional mandate must be declared as “highly irregular, illegal and against the Constitutional mandate”.
As per the petition, the bills pending with the governor since September 14, 2022 are: 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; University of Forestry Telangana Bill, 2022; 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.
Recently, the Punjab government had moved the top court against governor Banwarilal Purohit’s delay in summoning the budget session. The plea was later disposed of by the top court after the governor summoned the assembly as per the advice of the council of ministers.
A Raj Bhavan official refused to comment on the matter, saying it was not aware of the Telangana government’s petition in the Supreme Court.
