Just before bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh, a similar issue of Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan withholding assent for the proposal sent by then Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to nominate four MLCs under the Governor’s quota was reported.
While Mr. Narasimhan cleared the names of Nandi Yellaiah, T. Ratna Bai and Kanteti Satyanarayana Raju, he refused to sign the file nominating Raghurami Reddy in March 2014. This resulted in Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy writing a four-page letter to the Governor, quoting various judgments and stressing that the recommendations for the nomination of the MLCs under the Governor’s quota were made under Article 171 (3) (E).
Post bifurcation
Even after bifurcation of the State in 2014, Mr. Narasimhan had sent back a file containing the Cabinet resolution recommending a TRS leader, Karne Prabhakar, as an MLC under the Governor’s quota. The stalemate arose because of certain discrepancies in the fixation of total membership of the Telangana Legislature Council.
Sources said that the Governor has three options under Article 200 of the Constitution when a Bill passed by the Legislature is received for assent. The Govenor can refuse to give assent to a Bill, which is very rare. Secondly, a Bill can be sent back to the Legislature for reconsideration and if the same is passed again by the Legislature, with or without amendments and sent to Raj Bhavan, it has to be cleared.
The other option is for the Governor to reserve a Bill for consideration of the President of India. However, there is no fixed time frame for giving assent or signing a file.
For all practical purposes, Article 154 says that the Governor is the administrative head of the State as all the activities are carried out in his name. But that does not mean that the Council of Ministers have to brief the Governor on a day-to-day basis. The Raj Bhavan can always ask for report on administrative activities but Praja Darbar has not been heard of earlier.
