MP Governor, CM and Vidhan Sabha: Articles and Facts

Madhya Pradesh is governed under Part VI of the Constitution, where Articles 153 to 167 set up the state executive and Articles 168 to 212 the state legislature. The executive power of the state is vested in the Governor, but it is used by a Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister that holds office only while the Vidhan Sabha supports it. Unlike Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh has only one House: there is no Vidhan Parishad, so every bill, every budget and every motion of confidence goes through the 230-member Vidhan Sabha alone. For MPPSC, MP Police, MP Vyapam and SSC papers this chapter is a set of articles, numbers and firsts, and the numbers of this particular state carry the memory of two reorganisations.

How the state took shape

Madhya Pradesh was created on 1 November 1956 under the States Reorganisation Act, which merged the old Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh and Bhopal, with Bhopal as the capital. For the next forty-four years it was the largest state in the country by area. On 1 November 2000 the Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act carved out Chhattisgarh, which took ninety Assembly constituencies with it; the Vidhan Sabha, which had 320 seats before that, has had 230 since. Madhya Pradesh sends twenty-nine members to the Lok Sabha and eleven to the Rajya Sabha.

The Governor of Madhya Pradesh

Article 153 provides a Governor for each state and Article 154 vests the executive power of the state in him, to be exercised directly or through officers subordinate to him. Under Article 155 he is appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal, and under Article 156 he holds office for five years but during the pleasure of the President, to whom he addresses his resignation. Article 157 requires only that he be a citizen of India who has completed thirty-five years of age, and Article 158 bars him from membership of any legislature and from any office of profit while charging his emoluments on the Consolidated Fund of the state. Article 159 has him sworn in by the Chief Justice of the High Court of the state, which for Madhya Pradesh means the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, whose principal seat is at Jabalpur with benches at Indore and Gwalior. His residence is Raj Bhavan at Bhopal and he is Chancellor of the state universities. Pattabhi Sitaramayya was the first Governor of the reorganised state.

What the Governor can do

Two limits on Article 161 are asked again and again: the Governor cannot pardon a sentence of death, and he has no power over a sentence passed by a court martial, although he may suspend, remit or commute a death sentence. The President under Article 72 has both powers.

The Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers

Article 164 provides that the Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor and the other ministers by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister. The Constitution lays down no procedure for the choice; by convention the Governor calls the leader of the party or coalition with a majority in the Vidhan Sabha. A person who is not a member of the House may be appointed, but Article 164(4) requires him to become a member within six consecutive months or cease to be a minister. Article 163 provides the Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at its head to aid and advise the Governor except where he acts in his discretion, and shuts out any court from enquiring whether a matter was within that discretion. Article 164(1A), inserted by the Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act of 2003, caps the total number of ministers including the Chief Minister at fifteen per cent of the strength of the Assembly, with a floor of twelve; fifteen per cent of 230 is 34.5, so Madhya Pradesh can have at most thirty-four ministers. The Council is collectively responsible to the Vidhan Sabha, so a lost confidence motion takes down the whole ministry. Article 167 makes it the duty of the Chief Minister to communicate the decisions of the Council to the Governor and to furnish any information on administration he calls for; Article 165 provides an Advocate General, and Article 166 requires all executive action to be expressed in the name of the Governor. The secretariat at Bhopal, housed in Vallabh Bhawan and headed by the Chief Secretary, is the permanent machinery under the ministers.

Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha

The House has 230 members elected from single-member territorial constituencies by universal adult suffrage, of which thirty-five seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and forty-seven for the Scheduled Tribes under Article 332. Until January 2020 the Governor could also nominate one member of the Anglo-Indian community under Article 333, which is why older books give the strength as 231; the Constitution (One Hundred and Fourth Amendment) Act of 2019 let that provision lapse on 25 January 2020, so the House is now wholly elected. Article 172 gives the Assembly a term of five years from its first sitting, extendable by Parliament one year at a time while a Proclamation of Emergency is in force, and the Governor may dissolve it earlier. The minimum age for membership is twenty-five years under Article 173. Article 178 provides a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker elected by the House; the Speaker certifies money bills, decides disqualification on the ground of defection under the Tenth Schedule and exercises only a casting vote. Article 174 forbids a gap of more than six months between two sessions. The present Vidhan Bhavan at Bhopal, designed by the architect Charles Correa, is one of the better known legislature buildings in the country.

Why Madhya Pradesh has one House

Article 168 leaves it to each state whether to have one House or two, and Article 169 allows Parliament to create or abolish a Legislative Council when the Assembly of the state passes a resolution to that effect by a majority of its total membership and by two-thirds of the members present and voting. Madhya Pradesh has never had such a Council in operation, so its legislature consists of the Governor and the Vidhan Sabha alone. The practical effect is that a bill passed by the Vidhan Sabha goes straight to the Governor under Article 200, with no second chamber to delay a money bill by fourteen days or an ordinary bill by four months as happens in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh.

Firsts, milestones and President's rule

A Governor acts in his discretion when no party has a clear majority, when a ministry appears to have lost the confidence of the House, when he reserves a bill for the President under Article 200, and when he reports under Article 356 that the government of the state cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution. Madhya Pradesh has been under President's rule on more than one occasion, including a spell that began in December 1992, during which Parliament made laws for the state and the administration was carried on in the name of the President through the Governor.