Constitutional and Practical Facets of Discretionary Powers of Governors in Indian Federal System

Political system is a crucial subsystem of any nation and has certain distinctive features. Political system of India manifests two discernible attributes – representative parliamentary form of democracy and federal polity with striking unitary spirit. Parliamentary form of government implies existence of double executive – nominal executive and real executive. In the state, the Governor is the nominal executive and the Chief Minister and his Council of Ministers are the real executive. The Constitution of India vests executive power of the state in Governor. He has to act in accordance with the advice given by the Council of Ministers except for those matters where he has to act in his discretion. Discretionary powers of Governor include constitutional and situational powers. Governors have, at times, acted on partisan grounds in using their discretionary powers and this has adversely affected the sanctity of the constitutional office. Recommendations made for restoring diminished glory of this office have not been paid much attention by governments.