Governors as Chancellors of universities: Behind the legislative pushback

The Supreme Court once interpreted the role of the Governors as a 'functional euphemism', acting promptly and only on the advice of council of ministers. It is inevitable that when some of them, as Chancellors of universities, sought to change this paradigm, it led to pushback from state legislative assemblies.

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PUBLIC Universities have always played an essential role in asserting political values, from J. P. Narayan's time to the student movements at Jawaharlal Nehru University. At the helm of these public universities in states sits the Governor of the state.

Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer had called the offices of the President and the Governors a 'functional euphemism', that is,  he must act promptly on and only on the advice of the council of ministers.

In Maru Ram versus Union of India (1980), Justice Krishna Iyer wrote: "The President and the Governor, be they ever so high in textual terminology, are but functional euphemisms promptly acting on and only on the advice of the Council of Ministers save in a narrow area of power. So, even without reference to Article 367(1) and ss. 3(8)(b) and 3(60)(b) of the General Clauses Act, 1897, that in the matter of exercise of the powers under Articles 72 and 161, the two highest dignitaries in our constitutional scheme act and must act not on their own judgment but in accordance with the aid and advice of the ministers."