{"id":52086,"date":"2019-09-11T19:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T13:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=52086"},"modified":"2019-09-11T15:44:47","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T10:14:47","slug":"7-pm-all-the-presidents-men-11th-september-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-all-the-presidents-men-11th-september-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | All the President\u2019s men | 11th September, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context: <\/strong>The\ndebate around the office of the Governor, its appointments, removal and\nprocesses involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More\nin news:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Recently 5 new governors have been\nappointed. Arif Mohammed Khan has been appointed as Governor of Kerala, Kalraj\nMishra will be the Governor of Rajasthan. Bandaru Dattatreya has been appointed\nas Governor of Himachal Pradesh while Bhagat Singh Koshyari appointed as\nGovernor of Maharashtra.&nbsp;Tamilisai Soundararajan has been appointed as\nGovernor of Telangana.<\/li><li>All the nominated persons are deeply\nembedded within the Bharatiya Janata Party ecosystem.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Governor:\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The Governor is the head of\na state just like the President is the head of the republic. The Governor is\nthe nominal head of a state, while the Chief Minister is the executive head. <\/li><li>All executive actions of the\nstate are taken in the name of the Governor. However, in reality he merely\ngives his consent to the various executive actions. The real powers in the\nexecutive dealings of a state rest with the Chief Minister and the Council of\nMinisters.<\/li><li>According to an amendment in\nthe Constitution of India, brought about in 1956, the same person can be the\nGovernor of two or more states. <\/li><li>Apart from the governors in\nthe states, Lieutenant governors are appointed in Union Territories of Delhi,\nAndaman Nicobar Island and Pudducherry. <\/li><li>All other union-territories\nare governed by an Administrative Head (an IAS officer). <\/li><li>The only exception is\nChandigarh. The governor of Punjab is also the lieutenant governor of Chandigarh.<\/li><li>The powers of the Lieutenant\nGovernor of a union-territory are equivalent to the powers of a Governor of a\nstate in India. <\/li><li>Both are appointed by the\nPresident of India for a term of 5 years.<strong><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Appointment\nof Governor:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The governor is neither directly elected\nby the people nor indirectly elected by a specially constituted electoral\ncollege as is the case with the president.<\/li><li>He is appointed by the president by\nwarrant under his hand and seal. In a way, he is a nominee of the Central\ngovernment. <\/li><li>But, as held by the Supreme Court in\n1979, the office of governor of a state is not an employment under the Central\ngovernment. It is an independent constitutional office and is not under the\ncontrol of or subordinate to the Central government.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In the\nConstituent Assembly there was a proposal that the Governor should be elected\nby the people, instead of his being nominated or indirectly elected by the\nPresident. But the proposal was turned down by the Assembly on two important grounds:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It will be difficult to have any\nworkable division of powers between the Governor and the Chief Minister, when\nboth have been elected by the people and enjoy people\u2019s verdict.<\/li><li>In the country at that time, atmosphere\nwas likely to prevail in the states in which disintegrating forces were likely\nto play their role. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to\ncheck these it was essential that the Governors should be powerful persons free\nfrom the mud slugging of elections and above appeasement policy of the\nelectorates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Removal\nof Governors:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>As per\nArticle 155 and Article 156 of the Constitution, a Governor of a state is an\nappointee of the President, and he or she&nbsp;holds office \u201cduring the\npleasure of the President\u201d.&nbsp; <strong><\/strong><\/li><li>If a\nGovernor continues to enjoy the \u201cpleasure of the President\u201d, he or she can be\nin office for a term of five years. &nbsp;<strong><\/strong><\/li><li>Because the\nPresident is bound to act&nbsp;on the aid and advice of the Council of\nMinisters&nbsp;under Article 74 of the Constitution, in effect it is the\ncentral government that appoints and removes the Governors. \u201cPleasure of the\nPresident\u201d merely refers to this will and wish of the central government.&nbsp;<strong><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>B.P.\nSinghal vs Union of India&nbsp;(2010):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A constitutional\nbench of the Supreme Court interpreted the above mentioned provisions related\nto governors and laid down some binding principles. The Supreme Court held:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The President, in effect the central\ngovernment, has the power to remove a Governor at any time without giving him\nor her any reason, and without granting an opportunity to be heard.<\/li><li>However, this power cannot be exercised\nin an arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable manner. The power of removing\nGovernors should only be exercised in rare and exceptional circumstances for\nvalid and compelling reasons.<\/li><li>The mere reason that a Governor is at\nvariance with the policies and ideologies of the central government, or that\nthe central government has lost confidence in him or her, is not sufficient to\nremove a Governor. &nbsp;Thus, a change in central government cannot be a\nground for removal of Governors, or to appoint more favourable persons to this\npost.<\/li><li>A decision to remove a Governor can be\nchallenged in a court of law.&nbsp; In such cases, first the petitioner will\nhave to make a prima facie case of arbitrariness or bad faith on part of the\ncentral government. &nbsp;If a prima facie case is established, the court can\nrequire the central government to produce the materials on the basis of which\nthe decision was made in order to verify the presence of compelling reasons.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Recommendations\nof Various Commissions: <\/strong>Three important commissions have\nexamined this issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Sarkaria Commission (1988):<\/strong>\u00a0<ul><li>The Commission had stressed that the honour and prestige of the office of Governor could be maintained only when \u201ceminent\u201d individuals from outside the state with no \u201cvested\u201d interests, were appointed to the post.<\/li><li>The procedure of consulting the chief minister in the appointment of the state governor should be prescribed in the Constitution itself.<\/li><li>It recommended that Governors must not be removed before completion of their five year tenure, except in rare and compelling circumstances. This was meant to provide Governors with a measure of security of tenure, so that they could carry out their duties without fear or favour.\u00a0 <\/li><li>If such rare and compelling circumstances did exist, the Commission said that the procedure of removal must allow the Governors an opportunity to explain their conduct, and the central government must give fair consideration to such explanation. \u00a0<\/li><li>It was further recommended that Governors should be informed of the grounds of their removal. <\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Venkatachaliah Commission (2002):\u00a0<\/strong><ul><li>It recommended that ordinarily Governors should be allowed to complete their five year term.\u00a0 <\/li><li>If they have to be removed before completion of their term, the central government should do so only after consultation with the Chief Minister. <\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Punchhi Commission (2010):<\/strong> <ul><li>While selecting Governors, the Central Government should adopt the following strict guidelines as recommended in the Sarkaria Commission report and follow its mandate in letter and spirit :<ul><li>He should be eminent in some walk of life<\/li><li>He should be a person from outside the state<\/li><li>He should be a detached figure and not too intimately connected with the local politics of the states<\/li><li>He should be a person who has not taken too great a part in politics generally and particularly in the recent past<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>It suggested that the phrase \u201cduring the pleasure of the President\u201d should be deleted from the Constitution, because a Governor should not be removed at the will of the central government; instead he or she should be removed only by a resolution of the state legislature. <\/li><li>The above recommendations however were never made into law by Parliament. Therefore, they are not binding on the central government.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source:\n<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/all-the-presidents-men\/article29385636.ece\">https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/all-the-presidents-men\/article29385636.ece<\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: The debate around the office of the Governor, its appointments, removal and processes involved. More in news: Recently 5 new governors have been appointed. Arif Mohammed Khan has been appointed as Governor of Kerala, Kalraj Mishra will be the Governor of Rajasthan. Bandaru Dattatreya has been appointed as Governor of Himachal Pradesh while Bhagat&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-all-the-presidents-men-11th-september-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | All the President\u2019s men | 11th September, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/7-PM.png?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704940712},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}