The Telangana government filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the state governor over the delay in giving her assent to ten Bills passed by the state legislature which were currently lying with her. The matter is likely to come up for hearing tomorrow. The secretary to the governor has been made the respondent in the case.
The relationship between the state government and the Raj Bhavan has been rocky ever since Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan took over as governor with the BRS deeming her as a political appointee as she was the BJP president of Tamil Nadu before assuming office.
In its petition in the Supreme Court, the state government prayed 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 Honourable Governor as highly irregular, illegal and against the Constitutional mandate…” and direct the governor to forewith give assent to the pending bills. It may be pointed out that out of the ten bills seven are pending from September last year while three are pending from the Budget session.
Meanwhile, the governor has maintained that she required time to study the crucial bills before giving her assent. There is no time frame for the governor to give her assent. She can also return the Bill to the Assembly, but if it passes the same Bill again, she has to give her assent. Dr Soundararajan has neither given assent nor did she return the ten pending Bills. In an election year, the BRS was annoyed over being thwarted by Raj Bhavan in enacting these key Bills.
This is the second time the state government has sought judicial intervention over the governor’s refusal to give her assent sparking constitutional crisis. Just a month ago it had approached the High Court after the governor did not sign the Budget and the court had nudged the two parties into a rapprochement with governor delivering her address in a joint session of the Assembly and Legislative Council and signing the Budget papers.