Which one of the following is not correctly matched ?

Question

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Correct — C, 'Article 155 – Removal of the Governor'. Article 155 is headed 'Appointment of Governor' and reads in full: 'The Governor of a State shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal.' It is the appointing provision, and it says nothing at all about removal. The Constitution in fact contains no article headed 'Removal of the Governor' — removal is dealt with obliquely inside the NEXT article, in Article 156(1), which says the Governor 'shall hold office during the pleasure of the President'. That pleasure doctrine is what allows a Governor to be removed at any time before the five-year term ends, without any charge, enquiry or reason being stated. So the pairing offered in option (c) attaches to Article 155 a subject that belongs partly to Article 156 and partly to no article at all, which makes it the one pair that is not correctly matched.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This pair is correct, so it cannot be the answer. Article 153 is the article that creates the office: 'There shall be a Governor for each State.' A proviso added by the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956 allows the same person to be appointed Governor of two or more States — which is why a single Governor often holds charge of a neighbouring State as well.  (b) This pair is correct. Article 154(1) provides that 'the executive power of the State shall be vested in the Governor and shall be exercised by him either directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with this Constitution' — the state-level mirror of Article 53 for the President. The formal vesting of executive authority in the Governor is exactly what Article 154 does.  (d) This pair is correct. Article 156 is headed 'Term of office of Governor': clause (1) puts him in office during the pleasure of the President, clause (2) lets him resign by writing addressed to the President, clause (3) fixes a term of five years from the date he enters upon office, and clause (4) lets him continue in office until his successor enters upon office. Because the removal provision sits inside this term article, students who half-remember it are tempted to shift 'removal' one article back to 155 — which is precisely the trap the examiner set.

Concept: Part VI, Chapter II of the Constitution (Articles 153 to 167) lays out the State Executive, and the first block of articles maps cleanly onto the Governor's office: 153 creates the office, 154 vests the State's executive power in him, 155 provides for his appointment by the President by warrant, 156 fixes his term and his tenure at the President's pleasure, 157 lays down the qualifications (citizen of India, 35 years of age completed), 158 sets the conditions of the office, and 159 prescribes the oath. Note that the Governor is appointed, not elected — the Constituent Assembly deliberately dropped the elected-Governor proposal — and that the appointment power and the removal power sit in two different articles.

State PCS 2024 Q21 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2024 Q21 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer