Telangana Asks Court To Direct Governor To Give Assent To Pending Bills

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition filed by the Telangana government seeking directions to the state governor to clear 10 pending bills which have been passed by legislative assembly but are awaiting gubernatorial assent.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha agreed to hear the plea, after senior advocate Dushyant Dave mentioned it for urgent listing, saying several bills of public importance are stuck.

The bench said it will hear the plea on March 20.

The state government has said in its petition it is constrained to move the top court under Article 32 of the Constitution in view of a "constitutional impasse" created on account of refusal of the governor to act on several bills passed by the state legislature.

It said Article 200 of the Constitution empowers the governor to either give assent to a bill passed by the state legislature, or to withhold the assent, or reserve the bill for consideration of the President.

"This power has to be exercised as soon as possible," it said.

The state government said several bills passed by the assembly including the Telangana Municipal Laws (Amendment) bill, 2022, Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) Amendment bill, 2022 and Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, 2022 are awaiting Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan's nod.

Ms Soundararajan, a former chief of the BJP in Tamil Nadu, is locked in a running feud with the BRS government in Telangana.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)