Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan gives nod to 3 bills, returns 2

Hyderabad: Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Monday gave her approval for three legislations, but sent back two others to the state government. She forwarded two Bills to the President for her assent and kept three others with her.

The Governor cleared the Telangana Forest University Bill, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (Amendment) Bill and Telangana Municipalities (Amendment) Bill. The two bills sent for the President's assent are: Azamabad Industrial Area (Termination and Regulation of Leases) (Amendment) Bill, 2022; and, Telangana Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill, 2022.

She returned the controversial Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, 2022 with some queries.

Officials said that the Governor was against the constitution of the common recruitment board for all universities. "The state education wing officials said they had briefed the Governor about the amendment but the Governor was not convinced and sought more clarification from the government," they added.

The bills still pending with Raj Bhavan are Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022.

Her decision came on a day when the Supreme Court was set to resume hearing on the state government's petition. While seven Bills had been pending since September 2022, three were sent to the Governor in February for her approval. The petition pleaded with the Supreme Court to declare as illegal, irregular and unconstitutional the delay by the governor.

"As per the mandate of the Constitution, the Governor has to necessarily clear the bills and any inaction to accord assent would lead to lawlessness," the state government said in the Special Leave Petition (SLP).

The State argued that if the Governor has any doubts on the bills, she can seek clarifications but she cannot indefinitely keep them pending. "If she raises any issues, we will clarify them.

She cannot sit on them and the mandate of the Constitution in this regard is clearly in favour of the state," the government contended.