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Diarchy in Tamil Nadu

Ever since Banwarilal Purohit took over as Governor, Tamil Nadu has two power centres: Fort St George and Raj Bhavan.…

Diarchy in Tamil Nadu

Governor Banwarilal Purohit (Photo: Facebook)

Ever since Banwarilal Purohit took over as Governor, Tamil Nadu has two power centres: Fort St George and Raj Bhavan. Purohit justifies his usurping the powers of the elected executive by quoting legal opinion he had obtained from a Mumbai lawyer, Shreehari Aney, rather than abide by the Articles in the Constitution and their interpretation by the Supreme Court.

“Whatever the executive can do the Governor can also do,” Aney advised Purohit. As far back as 1955, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court ruled: “The President has been made a formal or constitutional head of the executive and the real executive powers are vested in the Cabinet and the Ministers. The same provisions obtain in regard to the governments in the States.

The Governor occupies the position of the head of the executive in the State but it is virtually the Council of Ministers in each State that carries on the executive government.” The ruling was reinforced by a nine-member Constitutional Bench in 1974 which declared, “The Governor means the Governor aided and advised by the Ministers.”

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Purohit has made it his practice to write directly to the Chief Secretary and the Revenue Secretary to arrange meetings for him with district-level government officials, creating a lot of confusion in administration. No man can serve two masters.

Tamil Nadu has been saddled with a government formed by a truncated AIADMK which lacks a majority in the Legislative Assembly but propped up by the BJP government at the Centre. It turned out to be the most corrupt since independence from which the people have no relief as it turned dictatorial.

Media freedom no longer exists in Tamil Nadu. Although the Governor had been a media baron in Maharashtra, he has done nothing so far to stop erosion of press freedom in Tamil Nadu. News media has been subjected to arbitrary and illegal actions in clear violation of Article 19 of the Constitution, forcing journalists to form the “Alliance for Media Freedom.”

If Purohit could not assess the mass discontent among people and spot corruption in every government department, what good his inspection tours of the districts serve? The only ray of hope is the High Court of Madras. It has ordered the government to install closed circuit television cameras inside all Regional Transport Offices in the State and sought property details of Regional Transport Officers in order to ensure public services were provided to the citizens without having to pay illegal gratification.

By another order, the High Court has ordered the State government to submit a list of the high and mighty persons, including film stars, who had encroached the ecologically fragile beachfront at Muttukadu, near Chennai, built near an unauthorised seawall and palatial bungalows. Three cheers to the High Court!

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