Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government has decided to skip the Governor's policy address in the budget session which is scheduled to begin next month. The decision was arrived at during a cabinet meet on Wednesday.
The budget session will be a continuation of the special assembly session which ended on Tuesday.
The seventh session of the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly adjourned sine die after seven days of sitting on Tuesday.
Though the assembly was dispersed on Tuesday, there was no announcement that it was adjourned.
That 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, does not mean that the government has managed to dump the ceremonial address for good. The government can only postpone the Governor's Address.
It is a procedural technicality of brief validity that the government has employed to snub the Governor. It has declared that the Budget session will be a continuation of the seventh session, the brief Assembly session that began from December 5 and ended on December 13.
But for how long can the government keep stretching the seventh session? It has to eventually fall in line with certain Constitutional requirements. And when it convenes the eighth session, whether it is in March or May or even December, this session will then technically be considered the first session of 2023. At that stage, the government will have no choice but to allow the Governor to deliver his customary policy address.
It is a Constitutional requirement. Here is what Article 176 of the Constitution says: "At the commencement of the first session after each 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 matters referred to in the Governor's address. So the address has to happen but the odd thing would be that it would follow the Budget presenttion rather than precede it as is the norm.
The Governor's policy address is meant to offer a broad picture of the state government's development and governance goals. It sets the tone for the Budget. However, next year, this Constitutional ritual will be turned upside down.
This decision not to have the Governor's address is, at the most, a temporary measure, taken to preempt the immediate possibility of a bothersome Governor embarrassing the government during his address. The government's concern can seem reasonable. Even when he had a smooth working relationship with the LDF government, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan had used the policy address to the Assembly to slight the LDF government.
Khan's very first address in 2018, made in the backdrop of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests, is a telling example. Khan had openly, in the midst of delivering the policy address in the Assembly, expressed his disagreement with a paragraph criticising the CAA.
The Speaker may convene the assembly by giving a notice of 12 days to its members.
The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to replace the Governor as the Chancellor of universities in the State and appoint eminent academicians in the top post, while the opposition UDF boycotted the House over non-acceptance of its suggestions regarding the bill.
The bill was passed after hours long discussions during which the Congress-led UDF said it was not opposed to the removal of the Governor as Chancellor.
The opposition wanted retired Supreme Court judges or former Kerala High Court chief justices to be considered for appointment at the helm of universities.
According to the Bill, the government shall appoint an academician of high repute or a person of eminence in any of the fields of science, including agriculture and veterinary science, technology, medicine, social science, humanities, literature, art, culture, law or public administration, as the Chancellor of an University.
With the passing of the University Laws (Amendment) Bill and four other pieces of legislation, the 7th session of the Kerala Legislative Assembly -- which began on December 5, concluded after seven days of sitting, the Speaker said in the House.
He also said that a total 17 bills were passed during this session.
