Telangana Guv Tamilisai Soundararajan rejects a pending Bill

HYDERABAD: Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has rejected one of the three Bills pending with her, amid the continuing rift with the State government.

She rejected the Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Bill.

The Bill was passed by the state legislature to include Director of Medical Education and Additional Director of Medical Education among the categories of professors, associate professors and assistant professors of government medical colleges for the purpose of superannuation age and raise the superannuation age from 61 years to 65 years.

The development came before the Supreme Court resumed hearing on the state government's petition seeking direction to the Governor to take a decision on Bills pending with her.

Thr Supreme Court was informed a few days ago that the Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) (Amendment Bill, the Telangana Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill, and the Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Bill wereunder active consideration of the Governor.

It was also told that the Governor has given her assent to three bills. They are the Telangana Motor Vehicles Taxation (Amendment) Bill, Telangana Municipalities (Amendment Bill), and the Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University (Amendment) Bill.

She sent the University of Forestry Telangana Bill and the Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill to the President for her consideration and assent.

The apex court was told that the Governor had sought certain clarification from the state government in regard to the Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill. It was also informed that the Azamabad Industrial Area (Termination and Regulation of Leases) (Amendment) Bill has not been submitted yet by the Law Department to the Governor for consideration.

The Supreme Court was hearing a petition by the state government seeking direction to the Governor to take a decision on the Bills pending with her.

In a writ petition, the state government brought to the notice of the Supreme Court that 10 Bills are pending with Raj Bhavan. While seven Bills were pending since September 2022, three Bills were sent to the Governor in February for her approval.

The petition pleaded the Supreme Court to declare as illegal, irregular and unconstitutional the delay by the governor.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) slammed the Governor for giving assent to only three out of 10 pending bills.