Governor role in Goa

• The decision of Goa Governor  to invite — and swear in — a government led by party which has won four fewer seats than the other party in the Assembly elections, has reopened the debate on the need for a more structured and transparent system to deal with scenarios arising out of fractured verdicts.

Sarkaria commission

• According to Sarkaria commission, Governor was expected to use his/her discretion in choosing the Chief Minister; in testing majority of the government in office; in the matter of dismissal of a Chief Minister; in dissolving the Legislative Assembly; in recommending President’s Rule and, finally, in reserving Bills for the President’s consideration.
• In choosing the Chief Minister the Governor should be guided by certain principles. The first criteria, the Commission recommended, was that the “party or combination of parties which commands the widest support in the Legislative Assembly should be called upon to form the government”.
• The Governor was expected to remember that his/her “task is to see that a government is formed and not to try to form a government which pursues policies which he approves”.
• The Commission recommended that the first shot at government formation should be allowed to the leader of the single party having an absolute majority in the Assembly. In case no party had majority, it suggested an order of preference that could guide the Governor in making a fair decision.
• This order of precedence, it recommended, should be: leader of any pre-poll alliance of parties “formed prior to the elections”, followed by the leader of the “largest single party staking a claim to form the government with the support of others, including ‘independents’”.
• Thereafter, the Governor could invite the leader of a “post-electoral coalition of parties, with all the partners in the coalition joining the government” and, finally, the leader of a post-electoral alliance of parties, with some of the parties in the alliance forming a government and the remaining parties, including Independents, supporting the government from outside.
• The Governor’s endeavour in all this should be to “select a leader who in his (Governor’s) judgment is most likely to command a majority in the Assembly”.

ARC

• The First ARC, which was set up in 1960 to review Centre-State relations, had pointed out that the Governor’s main aim should be to uphold his “oath of his office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law of the land”.
• It had also said the Governor should be impartial, should have a sense of fairplay, and should command the respect of all parties in the state.

Supreme court judgement:

• The Supreme Court’s Bommai judgment, while laying down the dictum that the floor test was the best test for whether a Chief Minister enjoys majority support, did not make it clear as to who should be given the first shot at government formation.

By: Vishal