Kerala govt seeks authority to oust Governor, pens letter to Centre

The Kerala state government has reportedly made this request in response to a letter from the Centre seeking its views on the report of the Justice Madan Mohan led Punchhi Commission, appointed by the Central Government to study and report on Central-State relations.

Thiruvananthapuram:The Kerala government on Saturday put forward a recommendation before the Centre seeking powers for the states to oust the Governor in case of dereliction of duty. Kerala is seeking powers for the state legislature to remove the Governor in case of violation of the Constitution, lapses in the duty of the Chancellor or in taking criminal prosecution proceedings.

The Kerala state government has reportedly made this request in response to a letter from the Centre seeking its views on the report of the Justice Madan Mohan led Punchhi Commission, appointed by the Central Government to study and report on Central-State relations. The Committee was established on April 27 2007, and includes some crucial names including Dhirendra Singh, Vinod Kumar Doogal, Dr. NR Madhav Menon and Vijay Shankar.

The recommendation made by the Legal Secretary in this regard was approved during the last Cabinet meeting. In the wake of recent clashes between the state government and the Governor on a number of issues. In retrospect, the clashes leave a lot of scope for this move by the state government to be a calculated one, as has been made clear in the report submitted by the Punchhi Commission in the last Cabinet meeting.

However, the opposition has criticized the decision as being taken without adequate discussion. It is unconstitutional to give the legislature the power to expel a person appointed by the President, and such a decision is immature to settle animosity towards any one person, the opposition opined.