HYDERABAD: The tussle between the Raj Bhavan and Pragathi Bhavan reached the national capital as the State government filed a special leave petition (SLP) against Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan in the Supreme Court on Thursday stating that she didn’t give her assent to 10 Bills. The State government pleaded with the apex court to direct the Governor to fulfil her constitutional obligation.
The government, in its SLP, which is likely to come up for hearing on Friday, said: “The State of Telangana is constrained to move before this 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 the refusal of the Governor of the State of Telangana to act on several Bills passed by the State Legislature. These Bills are pending since September 14, 2022, till date for the assent of the Governor.”
The State government named Secretary to the Governor as the respondent. “The present writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India is being filed by the Petitioner as the State is left with no other option and keeping in view the importance and magnitude of the issue on hand, is constrained to approach this court seeking appropriate reliefs,” the State government 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 petition said.
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 heavily inconveniencing the general public as a result.
The State government requested that the court, in the interest of justice, declares the inaction, omission and failure to comply with the constitutional mandate regarding the assent of bills by the constitutional functionary, the Governor, as highly irregular, illegal, and against the constitutional mandate. Therefore, the State government sought that the court issue a Writ of Mandamus or in the nature of Mandamus, or any other appropriate writ, order, or direction, requiring the Governor to give assent to the pending Bills without delay.
Ministers met Guv
The State government also informed the court that Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy met the Governor on November 10, 2022, and the Governor was apprised of the necessity of introducing the Bills and the urgency was explained. On January 30, Legislative Affairs Minister S Prashanth Reddy met the Governor and fervently requested to consider granting assent to the Bills as the delays in the matter of assent seriously hurts the very objective of the pending Bills.
Will the Bills collapse once the Assembly is dissolved?
In its petition, the government mentioned several cases relating to the functions of the Governor and what the architect of the Constitution, Dr BR Ambedkar, said about the role of the Governor. As per Articles 200 and 201 of the Constitution, a Bill pending the assent of the Governor or the President does not lapse as a result of the dissolution of the Assembly, and that incidentally shows that the provisions of Article 196 (5) are exhaustive.
What the petition says:
The State govt mentioned the Samsher Singh Vs State of Punjab case where the SC said the Constitution did not envisage the provision of “a parallel administration by allowing the Governor to go against the advice of the Council of Ministers.
It also said that Article 200 does not confer any independent discretion on the Governor as is clear from the discussion of the Constituent Assembly