INDIAN CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNOR

India achieved independence on 15th august 1947 after almost two hundred years
of british rule .But not before being partitioned on religious line followed by
communal volence of unprecedented scale.In the midst of all this was functioning
constituent assembly, a body with whom lies the responsibility of framing the
constitution of future india .

The constituent assembly was set up as per the provisions of the cabinet mission
plan and its members were indirectly elected by the members of provincial
legislative assemblies.The assembly apart from many decided that future india is
going to have a kind of federal structure with parliamentary form of government
at both central and state level.and one of the important aspect of parliamentary
form of government is it consist of two heads ,head of the state and state of the
government.so just like we have president and prime minister at the centre
provisions were made to have a governor along with chief minister for various
units.so to examine the functioning of this office of governor I have selected three
articles namely Governor in indian federalism by Ashok pankaj,Development in
indian federalism by Krishna Tumala and constitution review committee and the
governor by Nirmalendu BIkash Rakshit to review as a aprt of my review project
.For the sake of my convenience I have decided to review these articles by
dividing the content in them into three parts which will be followed by my
critique of it.in the first part I will be dealing with how the three authors have
gone through the debate that took place in constituent assembly regarding the
office of governors In the second part I will try to discuss how these three articles
highlights the misuse of the office of governor that relentlessely took plce over
the years .in the third part I will take a relook at the role played by indian judiciary
in curbing the misuse of article 356 .then I will try to give my critique of it.
 Constituent Assembley Debate
All the three authors have dealt with how members of the constituent assembly
debated over the method of appointing the governor in .surprisingly both
provincial constitution committee headed by Sardar patel and recommendation
of constitutional advisor were in favor of having a governor directly elected by
people .the initially draft constitution also have the same provision .But when the
issue came in the assembly a consensus developed that since the office of
governor is going to be a ceremonial one there is no point in having an elected
governor by people.secondly it was also believed that an elected governor would
unnecessary lead to conflict with chief minister of the state .the authors of the
three articles also highlights the fact that the situations that was prevailing at that
time like partition followed by communal riots,stubborn attitude shown by some
princely rulers,along with large scale poverty ,unemployment,illiteracy demanded
a strong centre who could strive to find out a panacea for all these menaces.so
ultimately the word elected is replaced by appointed and we have article 155
which says that governors of the state or states will be appointed by the president
in accordance with the advice tendered by the central cabinet.

SAGA OF MISUSE
office of governor. But,the central crux of the writings of all the three authors is
the misuse of article 356 by various governors on the behest of central
government. .they highlight the fact that how during the reign of Indira Gandhi as
much as 51 times president rule was imposed in various states.morarji All the
three authors after discussing about the debate took place in constituent
assembly regarding the office of governor moved towards much debated aspect
of this office.notably how various governments have misused the office of
governor for their political ends . firstly they highlight the fact that though
provision was made for an appointed governor ,there was a consensus that a
healthy convention will develop where man with unquestionable integrity wiii be
appointed as governor .Pandit Nehru while speaking about the governor said that
while appointing governor we need to take care of three things firstly he shuld be
an eminent personality in some walks of life ,he should in no way related to the
state politics and thirdly the chief minister of concerned state should be consulted
before making any appointment.There was also a kind of consensus that as as far
as possible a apolitical man should be appointed as governor .But much to the
dismay of our forefathers various government have used the office of governor as
a political tool only.As one of the author points out that from1950 to2015 as
much as fifty two percent politicians have been appointed as governor.the
authors also highlights how party ruling at the centre in order to prevent any
faction often try to placate the dissidents by offering him the desai who came to
power in 1977 by opposing the excessive centalisation of mrs Gandhi have himself
used it for 16 times .immediately after coimg to power he removed as much as 9
state government on the ground that they have lost their political
legitimacy.when mrs Gandhi returned to power in 1980 she also did the same
thing.They talked about various infamous cases where governor has misused his
discretionary power.Prominent among them was the removal of namboodripad
headed communist government of kerala ,bihar episode of 2005 where bhuta
singh before allowing any sitting of newly elected legislative assembly advice the
governor to impose president rule.author Krishna tumala in his article highlights
that how the political cloutthat lalu Yadav enjoys in upa 1 play a major role in
determining the functioning of bhuta singh as governor . ashok Pankaj in his
article has also mentioned the case of arunachal Pradesh and uttrakhand where
supreme court has reinstated the government of nabam tuki and harish rawat
respectively after they have been ousted by governor the respective sates.

Governor and judiciary

The authors in their articles have also cited various case to show the attempts
made by indian judiciary in curbing the misuse of article 356 . they have talked
about two most imporatant cases one was that of raghukul tilak vs hargovind in
1979 when supreme court says that the appointment made by president does
not mean that governor is an employ of the central government His is an
independent constitutional office . they also talked about SR Bommai vs union of
india case which proved to be a landmark judgement as far as office of governor is
concerned .In this judgement supreme court said that the only place to decide
whether a government has majority or not is is the floor of house .they also said
that if judiciary feels there has been a misuse of article 356 then it will come up
with remedy ..

Critical Appraisl
All the three authors in their articles have extensively deal with the office of
governor .They have covered almost every aspect of it starting from constitutional
debate to how it has been misused over the years .They have also highlighted the
role of judiciary in curbing the misuse of president rule .while the articles written
by ashok Pankaj and Krishna k. tumala main focus was on infamous cases where
president rule has been blatantly misused .The article written by Nirmalendu
Bikash Rakshit also talked about the suggestion given by the constitution review
commission headed by MN Rao venkatachaliah regarding how to ensure that
office of governor does not remain only a political tool of the centre .while
studying these three articles I feel that all the three authors has been soft when it
comes to questioning our first prime minister Pandit jawahar lal Nehru.Going by
what Nehru said in constituent assembly .Its clear that he wanted a governor
who remains politically neutral and performs his constitutional task of ensuring
that state government runs as per the provisions of the constitiution .but the fact
is very misuse of the office of governor have started to take place during his reign
only .it was under his premiership governor of madras sri prakasa misused his
discretionary power in 1952 when he instead of calling T Prakasam whose party
united front got highest number of seats (166) in Legislative assembly election
called C rajgopalchari of congress to be sworn in as chief minister and that too at
a time when Rajgopalachari was not even a member of legislative assembly .when
Namboodripad government in kerala was dislodged in 1959 at that time also it
was Nehru was the prime minister of this country.All the three articles would
have been cpmpletely holistic if authors would have thrown some light on what
was pandit Nehru stand when office of the governor was being so blatantly
misused under his nose.

Presented by: Rupesh Ranjan

Reg. No. 17SPMA04