Government of Kerala
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Government of Kerala | |
 Secretariat building, Trivandrum |
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| Seat of Government | Trivandrum |
| Executive | |
Legislative
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Judiciary
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| http://www.kerala.gov.in | |
The Government of Kerala (India) is a democratically elected body with the Governor as the head of the Constitution who is appointed for a period of five years appoints the Chief Minister and his council of ministers. Though formally speaking the governor remains the head of the state, the day to day activities of the government is taken care of by the Chief Minister and council of ministers in whom a great deal of legislative powers is distributed.
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[edit] Government and administration
[edit] Governor
- See also: Governors of Kerala
Like other Indian states, the governor is the constitutional head of state and is appointed by the President of India. The Governors of the states and territories of India have similar powers and functions at the state level as that of the President of India at Union level. They are appointed by the president for a term of 5 years. Only Indian citizens above 35 years of age are eligible for appointment.
All Governors are discharging all constitutional functions as appointment of chief minister of a state or sending reports on functionalities to the President about failure of constitutional machinery in a state or in respect of issues relating to assent to a bill passed by legislature, exercise or their own opinion. [1] The Governor enjoys many different types of powers:
- Executive powers related to administration, appointments and removals,
- Legislative powers related to lawmaking and the state legislature.
- Discretionary powers to be carried out according to the discretion of the Governor.
R. L. Bhatia has been the present governor since 23 June 2004.
[edit] Legislature
The legislature comprises of the governor and the legislative assembly, which is the highest political organ in state. The governor has the power to summon the assembly or to close the same.
All members of the legislative assembly are directly elected, normally once in every five years by the adult population who are eligible to vote. The current assembly consists of 140 elected members and one member nominated by the governor from the Anglo-Indian Community.
The elected members select one of its own members as its chairman who is called speaker. The speaker is assisted by the deputy speaker who is also elected by the members. The conduct of meeting in the house is the responsibility of the Speaker.
The main function of the assembly is to pass laws and rules. Every bill passed by the house has to be finally approved by the governor before it becomes applicable.
The normal term of the legislative assembly is five years from the date appointed for its first meeting. But while a proclamation of emergency is in operation, the said period will be extended by Parliament by Laws for a period not exceeding one year at a time. [2]
[edit] Executive
The Executive of the state consists of the Governor, the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers. The Chief Minister and the council of ministers also have been appointed by the governor. Governor summons prorogues and dissolves the legislature. He can close the legislative assembly on the recommendations by the Chief Minister. Judiciary has been separated from the executive in Kerala like other Indian states.
[edit] Judiciary
The High Court of Kerala is in Ernakulam and there are courts in every district centers and some municipal centers.
The high court also is a constitutional court terms of Indian Parliament. It is a court of record and has all the powers of such court including the power to punish for contempt of itself. Like all other High Courts of India, this court also shall consist of a Chief Justice and such other judges as the President of India from time to time deem it necessary. At present, the sanctioned Judge strength of the High Court of Kerala is 27 Permanent Judges including the Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and two additional judges. Every judge including the Chief Justice shall be appointed by the President of India by Warrant under his hand and seal. Every permanent and additional judge will continue in office until the age of 62. [3]
[edit] Chief Minister
- See also: List of Chief Ministers of Kerala
The executive authority is headed by the Chief Minister of Kerala, who is the de facto head of state and is vested with most of the executive powers; the Legislative Assembly's majority party leader is appointed to this position by the Governor. The present Chief Minister is V.S. Achuthanandan, who took office on 18 May 2006. Generally, the winning party decides the chief minister. In many cases, the party focuses a chief ministerial candidate during the election.
[edit] Council of Ministers
The Council of Ministers, which answers to the Legislative Assembly, has its members appointed by the Governor; the appointments receive input from the Chief Minister. They are collectively responsible to legislative assembly of the State also. Generally, the winning party and its chief minister chooses the ministers list and submit its for Governors approval.
[edit] Administrative divisions
Kerala State has been divided into three revenue divisions, 14 districts, 63 taluks, 1453 revenue villages, 1007 Gram panchayats, 5 corporations and 53 municipalities. [4] The business of the state government is transacted through the various secretariat departments based on the rules of business. Each department consists of secretary to government, who is the official head of the department and such other under secretaries, junior secretaries, officers and staffs subordinate to him/her. The Chief secretary superintending control over the whole secretariat and staff attached to the ministers.
The department is further divided into sections, each of which is under the charge of a section officer. Apart from these sections, dealing with the subjects allotted to them, there are other offices sections, assigned with specific duties. When there is more than one secretary in a department, there shall be a clear separation of work. [5]
[edit] State emblems
The state animal of Kerala is elephant and the government emblem has also two elephants in it. Other state emblems are, the state bird is Great Indian hornbill (ML:മലമ്പുഴക്കി വേഴാമ്പല്), state flower is Golden shower (ML:കണിക്കൊന്ന) and the state tree is coconut tree [6]
The official Kerala emblem is a derivative version of the Royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Travancore. The state emblem symbolizes two elephants guarding the imperial crest of couch (Shanku). It was the official royal seal of national deity of erstwhile Kingdom of Travancore-Sree Ananthapadmanabha. When the Kingdoms of Cochin and Travancore merged together in 1949, for a brief period, the crest carried a wheel or chakra in centre with Shanku on top of it. With accession of malabar into travancore-Cochin, the state of Kerala was formed in 1957. During this time, the royal coat of arms of travancore kingdom was modified with keeping lion capital emblem of India on top of imperial crest of couch. Kerala is often called the state of elephants.
[edit] Elections
Elections to the state assembly are held every five years. Elections are generally held for Parliament, State assembly and regional panchayats. Due to the large numbers of eligible voters, over 21 million, elections are usually held on several dates. Like all other Indian states, the minimum age of registration of a voter is 18 years.
[edit] Politics
The politics dominated by two major political fronts in Kerala, the Communist party-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Indian National Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). These two parties have alternating in power since 1982. According to 2006 Kerala Legislative Assembly election results, the LDF has a majority in the state assembly (99/140).
[edit] References
- ^ The States. Government of India.
- ^ Kerala Government - Legislature. Kerala Niyamasabha.
- ^ Profile. High Court of Kerala.
- ^ Kerala, at a glance. expert-eyes.org.
- ^ Organizational and functional details of the Government Secretariat. The official website, Government of Kerala.
- ^ Kerala Symbols. kerenvis.nic.in.
[edit] See also
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