Governors Cannot Be Replaced Arbitrarily with Change of Power: SC

In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has disapproved the practice of replacing Governors as a new government comes to power at the Centre, holding that the governors of states cannot be changed in an arbitrary and capricious manner with the change of power, said media reports.

A five member Constitution bench led by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan ruled that a governor could be replaced only under ‘compelling’ reasons for established misconduct or other irregularities, reports said.

Giving the decision, the bench observed that though the President appoints the Governor and he remains in office at former’s pleasure, he or she cannot be removed only because they are ‘not in sync’ with the party in power, said reports.

The apex court said that the Governor can be removed only under ‘compelling reasons’ and what the compelling reasons are depends on facts and situations of a particular case, reports said.

The Centre had, during the argumentation, contended that the conflict of Governor’s view with the national policy could invite his/her removal from the office by cutting short the five-year tenure, said reports.

Further, it had argued that the Governors act as a link between the Centre and the state governments and as such they cannot disagree on their own with the views of the government, reports said.

It had said that if a particular party comes to power under the mandate of democracy with particular socio-economic agenda, the Governors cannot say that they do not agree with that, said reports.

The bench also comprising Justices S H Kapadia, R V Raveendran, B Sudershan Reddy and P Sathasivam gave an unanimous verdict on the issue.

The landmark decision came on a PIL filed was in 2004 by then BJP MP B P Singhal challenging the removal of Governors of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Orissa by the previous UPA government.

The PIL had contended that the President could not have removed the Governors of four states on the advice of the Centre disregarding the Constitutional provision which fixed five-year term for them.

Vishnu Kant Shastri, Babu Parmanand, Kailashpati Mishra and Kidarnath Sahni had then been removed from their gubernatorial posts in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat and Goa respectively.

(Based on internet reports)