The role, powers, and discretion of the Governor’s Office in multiple States have been the subject of constitutional, political, and legal debate for decades. Recently, the prolonged silence of Jharkhand’s Governor over Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s possible disqualification as an MLA resulted in political uncertainty.
The power spat between the Delhi government and the Centre-appointed Lieutenant Governor over the appointment of bureaucrats or the deadlock between the Tamil Nadu government and Governor R.N. Ravi over assenting to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) exemption Bill are just two more instances of a tussle between the Raj Bhavan and the elected government in a State.
It thus becomes pertinent to understand what the framers of the Constitution had envisaged for the post of the Governor, and what powers have been specifically granted to the Office of Governors and Lieutenant Governor in the Constitution.
