Continuing the confrontation with Bharat Rashtra Samithi government in Telangana led by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Monday rejected one more bill pending with her, out of the 10 bills sent to her since September 14.
She also returned two other bills, thereby indicating that there are no other bills pending with her. The same was conveyed to the Supreme Court through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.
According to sources, the Governor had rejected the Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) Bill, 2022, aimed at increasing the retirement of Director of Medical Education, additional directors, professors, associate and assistant professors of the medical education from 61 years to 65 years.
Tamilisai returned two other bills pending with her – the Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Telangana Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 to the state government, seeking further clarifications.
After sitting over the bills for nearly seven months, the Governor on April 10 approved three bills -- Telangana Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and Telangana Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022.
She sent two more bills -- the University of Forestry Telangana Bill, 2022 and The Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, 2022 to the centre for Presidential assent.
At the same time, she returned two other bills – the Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill 2023 and the Azamabad Industrial Area (Termination and Regulation of Leases) (Amendment) Bill 2022, back to the state government raising certain objections and asking the government to rectify the same.
With the Governor sitting over the 10 bills without giving clearance for nearly seven months, Telangana chief secretary Shanti Kumari filed a petition in the the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Governor to give assent to the pending bills.
After hearing the arguments of both the state government as well as the Solicitor General of India on behalf of the Governor, a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha directed that the bills should be returned "as soon as possible."
