Kerala Governor warns ministers of removal; no such ‘dictatorial powers’: CPM

The Kerala Governor’s Twitter handle had posted: “Hon’ble Governor Shri Arif Mohammed Khan said: ‘The CM and Council of Ministers have every right to advise Governor. But statements of individual ministers that lower the dignity of the office of the Governor, can invite action including withdrawal of pleasure’.”

In the case of state ministers, the appointing authority is the Governor, with the Chief Minister providing recommendations. A minister can remain in office only at the Governor’s pleasure. Withdrawal of that pleasure means the minister has to quit or the Governor can ask the chief minister to remove a minister.

Referring to the tweet, the CPM politburo in a statement said: “This amounts to saying that the Governor can dismiss a minister by withdrawing his pleasure. Such dictatorial powers are not vested with the Governor by the Constitution. By making such a statement, Shri Khan has only exposed his political bias and hostility to the LDF government. The President of India should intervene to prevent the Kerala Governor from making such anti-Constitutional and anti-democratic statements.”
Sources said Khan was provoked by the statement of Higher Education Minister R Bindu that all were bound by their Constitutional duties. “The minister was referring to the Governor’s alleged refusal to give assent to University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which was passed by the Assembly, in September this year. The Bill had given an upper hand to the state government in the selection of vice-chancellors of the universities in Kerala,” said a source.

She had stated that the proposed legislation laid down certain safeguards for teachers and students in autonomous colleges. “He (the Governor) could have returned the Bill by citing anomalies if there were any. He has instead abandoned it. It is the responsibility of all and not a particular section alone to fulfil their Constitutional duties,” she stated last Friday.

The governor-government tussle has been going on in Kerala for the last few months. Last week, Khan withdrew 15 of his nominees from the senate of Kerala University in his capacity as the chancellor of the university. Khan cracked the whip on the Senate members after they kept away from a meeting of the university body which should have proposed its nominee for the search-cum-selection committee for the next V-C of the university.

Earlier, Khan had formed a search committee without the Senate nominee. The University Act mandates that the committee should have a nominee of the Senate. Since there was no recommendation for the nominee from the CPI(M)-dominated Senate, Khan notified only a two-member committee. CPI(M) was of the view that Khan had rushed through the process as the new bill would take away his upper hand in the selection of V-C.