HYDERABAD: The Telangana government filed a special leave petition against Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan in Supreme Court on Thursday, as the Governor did not give her assent to as many as ten Government Bills. The State government pleaded the apex court to direct the Governor to give her assent to the pending Bills.
"The State of Telangana is constrained to move before this Hon’ble court under its extraordinary jurisdiction as conferred under 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 the 14th of September 2022 till date for the assent of the Governor," the State government's petition said. The case is likely to come for a hearing on Friday.
The State government made Secretary to the Governor as respondent.
The ten Government Bills pending with Raj Bhavan included The "Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022. The State is planning to recruit around 2,000 lecturers in various universities. However, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan did not give her assent to any of these Bills, pending since September 2022.
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.
The State government prayed that in the interest of justice that the Court may be pleased to declare that the inaction, omission, and failure to comply with the constitutional mandate qua the assent of the bills by the Constitutional functionary the Governor as highly irregular, illegal, and against the Constitutional mandate and consequently issue Writ of Mandamus or Writ in the nature of Mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, to the Governor, to forthwith give assent to the pending Bills.