Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government has decided to skip the Governor’s policy address in the budget session starting next month. The decision was taken during the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The budget session will continue like the special session of the assembly that ended on Tuesday. The seventh session of the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly was adjourned sine die on Tuesday after seven days of sitting.
Though the assembly was dispersed on Tuesday, no announcement was made to adjourn it.
While there will be no Governor’s address when the Kerala Assembly convenes for the first time in 2023, which will be for the Kerala Budget 2023-24, this does not mean that the government has managed to cancel the formal address forever. The government can only postpone the Governor’s address.
It is a procedural technique of brief validity employed by the Government to hoodwink the Governor. It has announced that the budget session will be a continuation of the seventh session, the abbreviated assembly session which began on December 5 and ended on December 13. But till when can the government extend the seventh season? It ultimately has to conform to certain constitutional requirements. And when it conducts the eighth session, be it in March or May or December, then this session will technically be considered as the first session of 2023. Customary Policy Address.
This is a constitutional requirement. Here Article 176 of the Constitution says: “At the commencement of the first session after every general election to the Legislative Assembly and at the commencement of the first session of each year, the Governor shall address the Legislative Assembly.”
The article further states that time should be allotted for discussion on the matters specified in the Governor’s Address. So the Address has to happen, but the strange thing is that it will not be followed by the presentation of the Budget, as is the rule. The Governor’s policy address is meant to present a comprehensive picture of the development and governance goals of the state government. It sets the tone for the budget.
However, the next year, this constitutional ritual would be turned upside down. This decision of not having a Governor’s address is, at best, a temporary measure, taken to ward off the immediate possibility of an irate Governor embarrassing the government during his address. The concern of the government may seem justified. Even when he had a smooth working relationship with the LDF government,
Governor Arif Mohammad Khan used the policy address in the assembly to belittle the LDF government. Khan’s first address, made in the backdrop of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2018, is an example. Khan had openly expressed his disagreement with a paragraph criticizing the CAA in the middle of a policy speech in the assembly.
The Speaker can summon the Assembly by giving 12 days’ notice to its members.
The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to replace the governor as chancellor of universities in the state and appoint eminent educationists to the top post, even as the opposition UDF boycotted the house for not accepting its suggestions regarding the bill. did. The bill was passed after an hour-long discussion during which the Congress-led UDF said it was not opposed to the removal of the governor as chancellor.
The opposition wanted retired judges of the Supreme Court or former chief justices of the Kerala High Court to be considered for appointment at the helm of the universities.
According to the bill, the government will appoint an academician or eminent person of high eminence in any field of science including agricultural and veterinary science, technology, medicine, social science, humanities, literature, art, culture, law or science. Public Administration, as Chancellor of a University. With the passage of the Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill and four other laws, the seventh session of the Kerala Legislative Assembly, which began on December 5, concluded after seven days of sitting, the Speaker told the House.
He also said that a total of 17 bills were passed during this session.
