Hyderabad: The Telangana State Planning Board’s Vice Chairman B Vinod Kumar on Wednesday in a letter addressed to the Law Commission’s Chairman, Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi requested to amend Article 200 of the Constitution of India to ensure more accountability on part of state governors.
What does Article 200 state?
Article 200 of the constitution states that:
When a Bill has been passed by the Legislative Assembly el a State or, in the case of a State having a Legislative Council has been passed by both Houses of the Legislature of the State, it shall be presented to the Governor and the Governor shall declare either that he assents to the Bill or that he withholds assent therefrom or that he reserves the Bill for the consideration of the President provided that the Governor may, as soon as possible alter the presentation to him of the Bill for assent, return, the Bill if it is not a Money Bill together with a message requesting that the House or Houses will reconsider the Bill or any specified provision, thereof and in particular, will consider the desirability of introducing any such amendments as he may recommend in his message and when a Bill is so returned, the House or Houses shall reconsider the Bill accordingly, and if the Bill is passed again by The Haune or Houses with or without amendment and presented to the Governor for assent, the Governor shall not withhold assent therefrom.
Kumar demanded replacing the ‘vague’ term “as soon as possible“ with a term that’s more specific such as “within 30 days” that will ensure that the Governors are held more accountable within a specific timeframe.
“The framers of the Constitution would never have envisaged that such a situation would arise where a Governor openly contradicts the policy/ bills of the elected state government by indefinitely delaying assent,” stated Kumar.
Kumar’s statement comes amid the state’s war with the Governor, Tamilisai Soundarajan, over the ‘indefinite’ delay in granting assent to The Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill 2022 that was submitted to the Governor for her perusal a few months ago.
“Unfortunately no action has been taken so far,” said Kumar in his letter.
Lately, the state government of several southern states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and been at loggerheads with their respective state Governors over “unduly” delay “to act upon bills passed by the state Legislatures.”
“This attitude of the Constitutional Head is causing irreparable loss to the people of the nation,” stated Kumar.
Kumar in his letter also stated that states ruled by BJP don’t have any such issues with Governors. “But it’s only the non-BJP states such as Telangana that have to bear the brunt of such delays. Article 1 of the Indian constitution states that India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States. I wish to inform you that limiting the growth of one state shall definitely limit the growth of the overall nation,” Kumar narrated.
“I strongly urge you to look into this matter.”
“I sincerely hope that you will consider my request and recommend the Government of India to amend Article 200 of the Constitution,” Kumar concluded.
