The Use and Abuse of Discretionary Powers of Governor in Formation of Ministry in a State in India
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556117750901 |
| Date | 01 June 2018 |
| Published date | 01 June 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
64(2) 228–236
© 2018 IIPA
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0019556117750901
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ipa
1 Associate Professor, Christian College, Kattakada, Thiruvananthapuram, India.
Corresponding author:
Vincent Joy, Associate Professor, Christian College, Kattakada, Thiruvananthapuram, India.
E-mail: nsvincentjoy@yahoo.co.in
The Use and Abuse of
Discretionary Powers
of Governor in
Formation of Ministry
in a State in India
Vincent Joy1
Abstract
Discretionary powers of the Governor means the powers which s/he exercises
as per one’s own individual judgement or without the aid and advice of the
Council of Ministers. The Governor has to perform the duties as head of the
state and as a ‘spot man’ of the central government and to use this discretionary
power, within the peculiar context of our quasi-federal Constitution. One of
the areas where the Governor can exercise discretion is in the appointment of
a Chief Minister when a hung assembly emerges. The emergence of coalition
government, party splits and mergers, alignment and realignment of parties,
defection, etc. create muddled circumstances and these give opportunities to
the Governor to use his discretion discriminately in the choice of the Chief
Minister. The central government is alleged to use the office of the Governor as
a weapon to manipulate the politics of the states for political gain. Unfortunately,
no uniform practice has been followed or parliamentary traditions evolved in the
practice of the appointment of Chief Ministers. The major criteria are whether
the leader carries the majority with him or the coalition partners will have a
workable majority. The Governor should try to secure a stable government and
use his discretion without extraneous influence or consideration. All the study
teams and the commissions urged the inevitability on the formulation of certain
guidelines as precedents to follow in the appointment of the Chief Minister.
In case the episode like Arunachal Pradesh (2016) repeats, the judiciary will
certainly act as the guardian of the Constitution.
Keywords
Discretionary power, hung assembly, governor, state legislature, formation of
ministry, office of governor
To continue reading
Request your trial