Arif Mohammed Khan set to continue as Kerala Governor for now

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan will complete five years in office on Thursday, but with no signs of a successor, he will, in all likelihood, continue in the post.

Incidentally, till now, no Governor in Kerala has been reappointed for another term.

A source in the know of things told IANS that Khan has given the nod for various functions he will be attending this month and also in October.

As per the source, a Governor’s term is five years, as per convention. “But there are cases of Governors continuing beyond the five-year term. Only time will tell if Khan is going to be an exception,” the source said. Article 156 (1) in the Constitution of India’s Part 6 (‘The States’) provides that a Governor “shall hold office during the pleasure of the President”, while Article 156 (3) reads that “Subject to the foregoing provisions of this article, a Governor shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office”. It adds that a Governor “shall, notwithstanding the expiration of his term, continue to hold office until his successor enters upon his office”.

Khan assumed his gubernatorial post in Kerala on September 6, 2019, succeeding Justice P. Sathasivam (retd), whose five-year term ended the previous day.

While Khan has won the tag of being a friendly person and with no airs from the position he holds, he has, several times, taken up cudgels with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in particular and the LDF government in general.

On several occasions, when the two shared the dais, let alone the customary pleasantries when the two top people in the state meet, there was not even eye contact. And there were occasions when both took on each other speaking through the media.

The tiff between Khan and the Left government spilled out on the streets when he staged a sit-in protest, when en route to a function in the Kollam district on January 27, to protest the police’s failure to prevent the SFI students from blocking his travel.

The Governor got down from his official car and sat on a chair on the side of the main road at Nilamel in protest. Three days before this incident, in a first of its kind, Khan, delivering the customary Governor’s address to the Assembly, took just 90 seconds as he just read the first and last sentence of the speech, and left the Assembly within five minutes.

Khan also was in the news when the state government approached the Supreme Court early this year seeking their intervention as around seven crucial Bills continued to remain stuck in the Raj Bhavan, after Khan did not take any interest in giving his assent.

Now all eyes are pointed towards Delhi to see if Khan will create yet another record by becoming the first Kerala Governor to get a second full term.

IANS