Supreme Court postpones hearing on Telangana’s pending bills issue

The Telangana government has filed a plea seeking directions to the state Governor to clear 10 bills that have been passed by the Assembly but are awaiting gubernatorial assent. The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing on this plea to April 10. The bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala was told by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that he had some discussion with the Governor on the issue and would make a statement on the next date of hearing. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the Telangana government, said that in Madhya Pradesh, the Governor grants assent to bills within seven days while in Gujarat, bills are cleared within a month. Mehta said that there are certain communications, but he would not like to elaborate further. On March 20, the top court sought the Centre’s response on the plea filed by the state government. It had clarified that the court will not issue notice to the office of Governor but would like to see the reply of the Union of India on the state government’s plea.