Governor’s Office and Powers in India

In recent times we have come across various disputes regarding the powers exercised by the Governors of different states. Some of the instances are that of  the role of the governor of Tamil Nadu in resolving a dispute regarding appointment of Chief Minister, the appointment of governor in Arunachal Pradesh etc. In such circumstances questions arise as to who a governor is, what role this post has in the administration of a state, what problems the post is facing and what can be done to solve this problem. These have been discussed below.

Who is a Governor?

Article 153 of the Constitution of India requires a governor to be appointed for every state in India. Like the President is for the Union, the governor is the chief executive head of a state. Governor is neither directly elected by people nor, like the president, elected by a specially constituted electoral college.

Governor is directly appointed by the president, or in other words, he is a nominee of the central government. The general tenure of office is five years. But he or she is allowed to hold office at the pleasure of the President i.e. as long as the President wishes. So, a Governor can be removed any time when the President wishes to. The post of governor is not an employment under the central government, it is a constitutional post.

Powers of the Governor

Powers of the governor as provided under the Constitution of India are as follows:

Executive powers

Article 154 of the Constitution provides that the executive power of state is vested on the Governor.

• All executive actions of the state government are taken in the name of the Governor.
• He appoints Chief Minister and on Chief Minister’s recommendation other ministers. The Chief Minister can then hold office at the pleasure of the Governor (Article 164).
• He appoints Advocate General of state, State Election Commissioners and chairman and members of state public service commission.
• He also contributes in the appointment of judges of the High Court.
• He recommends imposition of constitutional emergency in the state.
• He appoints Tribal Welfare minister in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha.

Legislative powers

• Role with respect to State Assembly– He can prorogue or summon the state legislative assembly and can also dissolve the same.
• Power of Nomination– He nominates 1/6^th member of the state legislative council and can nominate 1 member to state legislative assembly of Anglo-Indian community.
• Assent to Bill– Under Article 200 of the Constitution, when a Bill is sent to the governor he can exercise three options: give assent to the bill; or withhold the assent to the bill; or return the bill for reconsideration; or reserve the bill for the consideration of the president.
• Power of issue of Ordinance– He can promulgate an ordinance when the state legislative assembly is not in session as provided under Article 213 of the Constitution.
• Laying reports-He lays the report of state finance commission, comptroller and Auditor-General relating to the account of the state and the state public service commission in the state legislative assembly.

Financial power

• A Money bill can be introduced only after the prior recommendation of the Governor.
• He ensures that the state budget is laid before the state legislature.
• Demand for grant can be made only after the recommendation of the Governor.
• He constitutes finance commission to look into the financial position of panchayats and municipalities.

Judicial powers

• Grant of Pardon– Article 161 of the Constitution provides that the Governor can grant pardon, reprieve, respite and remission of punishment or suspend, remit and commute the sentence of any person convicted of an offense to which executive power of state extends.
• Appointment of Judges– While appointing the judges of High courts, president consults Governor. He makes appointments of district judges and also looks into their posting and promotions.

Our constitution has made governor only a nominal head. Real executive power is vested in the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister. In other words, the governor has to exercise his power with the aid and advice of council of minister headed by the chief minister. But the Constitution also mentions possibilities of governor acting at times in his discretion. These can be listed into two groups i.e. constitutional discretion and situational discretion

Constitutional discretion:

• Reservation of bill for consideration of the President.
• Recommendation for the imposition of President’s rule.
• Exercising his function as administrator of adjoining Union Territory.
• Determining the amount payable by government of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura to autonomous Tribal District Council.
• Seeking information from the chief minister regarding legislative and administrative matters of state.

Situational discretion

• Appointing chief minister when no party enjoy clear majority or when chief minister dies and there is no obvious successor.
• Dismissal of council of minister when they lost confidence of the state legislative assembly.
• Dissolution of state legislative assembly if the council of minister has lost its majority.

Governor’s Post-Highly subjected to Politicization

Governor was expected to be a link between Centre and state, but instead, he has become a tool in the hand of Centre to interfere in the working of state government. Due to this, the Governor’s post has become highly politicized. One recent example is the situation in Arunachal Pradesh. The Governor’s sudden call for emergency created havoc in the state. Then the verdict of the Supreme Court in this regard was an indication calling for the Centre to stop using the post of Governor to destabilize governments.  Factors leading to this situation are:

• Discretionary powers enjoyed by governor gave him ample power to act independently of elected state government. Many times these powers are misused like imposition of emergency under Art. 356.
• Governors are appointed without the security of tenure. This leads to situation when after election new government removes governors appointed by previous government before expiry of their term.
• Though governors can be removed easily by central government, there is no way governors can be impeached by both parliament and state legislature. Thus making governor virtually immune.

Recommendations

Many commissions including Sarkaria commission and Punchii commission have suggested reforms to the office of governor. Most important of these includes:

• Governor must be a person from outside the state so that he is detached from local politics.
• His tenure must be fixed and should not be disturbed except in the case of extremely compelling reasons
• State governments should have say in the appointment of governor. The panel for appointing governor should be prepared by state legislature or state government.
• Chief minister should be consulted before appointing governor.
• Punchii commission recommended that appointment of governor should be entrusted to a committee including Prime Minister, speaker of Lok Sabha, Home minister and chief minister.
• Doctrine of pleasure should end. Governor should not be removed at the pleasure of President.
• State legislature should be given power to impeach governor.

Conclusion

Apart from these governors should realize their constitutional role and stop engaging in partisan politics. C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) said that governor is like a federal fireman. Like fireman, they should only be called upon in case of emergency. Governor’s office should not be used for party politics.