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UP Guv quits, others refuse to oblige
New Delhi: UP Governor Quits, Others Refuse to Oblige, Even as Uttar Pradesh Governor B L Joshi sent in his resignation, following the pressure mounted by the Modi Government on the Governors appointed by the previous Congress-led UPA Government to quit, the other Governors have not followed suit.
- Being denied LoP and Dy Speaker posts, Cong decides to fight back
- SC ruling protects Governors from arbitrary removal
- Change of Govt at Centre not a ground for removal
New Delhi: Even as Uttar Pradesh Governor B L Joshi sent in his resignation, following the pressure mounted by the Modi Government on the Governors appointed by the previous Congress-led UPA Government to quit, the other Governors have not followed suit.
Instead, the other Governors are digging in the heels and bracing for a confrontation and most of them like Kerala Governor Sheila Dikshit and Karnataka Governor H R Bharadwaj have left the decision to the Congress. If the Congress High Command decides that they should resign, only then they will put in their papers.
After being denied the post of Leader of Opposition and with Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker post, too, being denied, the Congress appears to be determined to take on the Modi Government on the removal of Governors. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh gave away the gameplan of the Modi Government, when he quipped, “If I were in their place, I would have resigned.”
If Modi Government chooses to sack the Governors and fails to substantiate its decision, it will be open to judicial review. The Apex Court verdict in 2010 on removal of Governors stated, “If the aggrieved person is able to demonstrate prima facie that his removal was either arbitrary, malafide, capricious or whimsical, the court will call upon the Union Government to disclose to the court, the material upon which the President had taken the decision to withdraw the pleasure. If the Union Government does not disclose any reason, or if the reasons disclosed are found to be irrelevant, arbitrary, whimsical, or malafide, the court will interfere.”
All along, the Government managed to have its way on the issue of removal of the Governors. The situation changed the BJP took the issue of removal of four Goverinors – Vishnu Kant Shastri (UP), Kailashpati Mishra (Gujarat), Kedar Nath Sahni (Goa) and Babu Parmanand (Haryana) – by the then Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil in 2004 to the Supreme Court. Now the Supreme Court has made it clear, saying, “A Governor cannot be removed on the ground that he is out of sync with the policies and ideologies of the Union Government or the party in power at the Centre. Nor can he be removed on the ground that the Union Government has lost confidence in him.”
Maharashtra Governor K Shankaranarayan, Kerala Sheila Dikshit, Punjab Governor Shivraj Patil, West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan, Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav, Karnataka Governor H R Bharadwaj, Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal, Assam Governor J B Patnaik and Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva are all under pressure to quit. Significantly, Margaret Alva had called on Prime Minister Modi at his 7, Race Course Road residence in the capital.
