Battle Between Telangana CM KCR, Guv Soundararajan Over Pending Bills Reaches SC

Political slugfest between Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has escalated as the state government moved the Supreme Court over “inordinate delay” by the Governor in approving pending bills.

In its petition, the Telangana government has stated that it is constrained to move before the court under its extraordinary jurisdiction 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 to act on several bills passed by the State Legislature.” It claimed that the bills have been pending for approval since September 14 last year. The Governor has been named as a respondent.

Here’s a list of 10 bills pending before the Governor, including some from the recently concluded budget session:

• Bill passed on 12/09/22 – The Azamabad Industrial Area (Termination and Regulation of Leases) (Amendment) Bill, 2022
• Bill passed on 12/09/22 – The Telangana Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 (L.A.Bill No 7 of 2022)
• Bill passed on 12/09/22 – Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022. (L.A.Bill No. 8 of 2022)
• Bill passed on 12/09/22 – The University of Forestry Telangana Bill, 2022 (L.A.Bill No 9 of 2022)
• Bill passed on 12/09/22 – The Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, 2022
• Bill passed on 12/09/22 – The Telangana Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 (L.A.Bill No 11 of 2022)
• Bill passed on 13/09/22 – The Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022
• Bill passed on 8/02/2023 – The Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (Amendment) Bill, 2023
• Bill passed on 10/02/2023 – The Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2023 (L.A.Bill No 2 of 2023)
• Bill passed on 10/02/2023 – The Telangana Municipalities (Amendment) Bill, 2023 (L.A.Bill No. 3 of 2023)

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS)-led state government also alleged that despite providing clarifications sought by the Governor earlier, the bills have been pending in complete violation of the constitutional norms.

The Constitution did not envisage at providing parallel administration within the state by allowing the Governor to go against the advice of the Council of Ministers. Article 200 did not also confer any independent discretion on the Governor as was clear from the discussion in the Constituent Assembly, the petition said.

In an interview to CNN-News18 earlier, Soundararajan spoke about the pending bills and lashed out at the BRS, formerly known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), for “undermining her office”.

“They have been insulting this office for the past three years. I am not sitting on the bills. I am evaluating them as to how it will be useful to people, how transparency will be maintained. The Governor has the right to access and evaluate any bill. The constitution does not say there is a time limit to give my assent to the bills. I need sometime to go through the bills and despite repeatedly telling them the same, they are still acting this way. Is this the correct way to react?” the Governor had said.

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