The Discretionary Powers of the Governor-Some Observations

The Indian Constitution in Article 163 has granted discretionary powers to the Governor which he can exercise without consulting the Council of Ministers. But the Constitution does not spell out the functions that the Governor can discharge in his discretion. As such the nature and scope of discretionary powers and required to be determined by the Governor himself as Head of a Constitutional Government. The importance of discretionary power is evident from the fact that the Constitution declares them to be non justiciable. Despite the fact that no limitations have been imposed on the exercise of discretionary powers, the Governor is supposed to honour the Constitution and the conventions of the Parliamentary Government. However, there is a number of instances where the Governors have exercised their discretionary powers in an arbitrary manner in the matters like appointment of Chief Ministers, dismissal of Council of Ministers, dissolution of Assembly and imposition of President Rule in different States during the last six decades. Some of these actions taken by the Governor were termed as “Fraud on Power” by the judiciary. The growing abuse of discretionary powers may be minimized if the “pleasure clause” for the removal of the Governor is deleted from the Constitution and he is assured of his five years tenure as prescribed in Article 156(3). It should be recalled that the President has not been clothed with any discretionary powers.