Supreme Court shuts door on Federalism argument against Telangana bill

Supreme Court bench, headed by H.L. Dattu and S.A. Bobde, heard for 1.5 hours anti-telangana arguments of those who claim the tabling the Telangana bill in Parliament is violation of India’s ‘federal’ structure. The petitioners in effect are saying what self-proclaimed intellectuals like Loksatta’s JP have been giving speeches about in last few weeks. The SC bench did not get convinced with the argument and rejected the petitioners plea as ‘premature’. It rejected the plea to direct the centre not to table the bill in Parliament. The SC clearly indicated again that it can not interfere in legislative affairs of Parliament. That would mean the SC would not interfere till the Parliament passes the bill!

The petitioners can approach the court only after the bill is passed and a law is made if they think the law violated the petitioners’ rights. While the agenda of the petitioners obviously is to stop the T Bill from getting tabled, that is no more possible. The SC, by once again rejecting appeals to interfere in the process, proved the hollowness of Anti-Telangana activists’ arguments that the bill is unconstitutional.