After a gap of more than seven months, Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan has taken action on the bills passed by the state legislature and sent to Raj Bhavan for her assent.
Out of 10 bills pending with her since September, Tamilsai has approved three bills while rejecting the others. The rejected bills have been sent back to the government. She sent another two bills to the President of India for his assent and kept the remaining bills still pending with her.
The decision of the Governor follows a petition filed by the Telangana government in the Supreme Court seeking directions to her to give her assent to as many as 10 bills passed by the state legislature.
The Supreme Court, which issued notices to the Centre seeking a response from the Governor, sought a status report on the pending bills. The issue was expected to come up for hearing on Monday.
In her petition filed on behalf of the state government, the Chief Secretary Santi Kumari said the state government was forced to seek the intervention of the Supreme Court under Article 32 due to the frequent Constitutional impasse created on account of the Governor's refusal to act on several bills passed by the state legislature.
The bills that were passed by the state legislature and pending with the Governor since September 14, 2022 were: 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.
The Chief Secretary highlighted Article 163 of the Constitution, which requires the Governor to exercise his functions or any of them in his discretion only on the aid and advice of the council of ministers with the Chief Minister as its head.
Regarding the Governor's powers in dealing with bills, the state government pointed to Article 200 of the Constitution.
"The Governor may assent or may withhold assent, in which case the bill must be returned to the state legislature," she said.
If the bill is returned, the houses are required to reconsider accordingly and once passed with or without the amendments suggested, they are presented to the Governor for assent, which the Governor shall not withhold.