Pinarayi Vijayan Calls Former Governor’s Recommendation to Remove PSC Members ‘Gross Abuse of Power’

Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan has described the governor’s recommendation to the President to remove the PSC chairperson and dissolve the commission as a gross abuse of power. He said the move was illegal and violated constitutional provisions.

The Public Service Commission is constituted under Article 316 of the Constitution. Under Article 316(2), members appointed to the commission have a tenure of six years. To remove a member before the completion of this term, the procedure prescribed under Article 317 must be followed.

He said the President could decide on the removal of the chairperson or members only after the Supreme Court conducted an inquiry into a complaint of misbehaviour and submitted a report recommending their removal. No such inquiry has been conducted by the Supreme Court against Keralam PSC members, he said. Therefore, the governor has no constitutional authority to make such a recommendation, Pinarayi added.

He alleged that the outgoing governor had made the recommendation as a continuation of what he described as unlawful interventions in the state during his tenure.

Article 163 stipulates that the governor must act in accordance with the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, he said, adding that the governor has no independent authority in this matter. The Cabinet, too, cannot decide on the issue without a report based on a Supreme Court inquiry under Article 317. The governor’s action was therefore entirely unconstitutional and illegal, he said.

The PSC is a continuing institution, Pinarayi said. There is no established practice of removing an incumbent chairperson or members whenever a government changes. Instead, new members are appointed as the existing members complete their terms. Keralam has no history of using the PSC as an instrument of political vendetta, he added.

Pinarayi demanded that the state government clarify its position on what he called the governor’s unlawful action.

He questioned whether the UDF government supported such unconstitutional actions by governors. He alleged that the BJP routinely used governors as agents of the Union government to interfere with the federal powers of state governments, and said the latest development should be viewed in that context.

He also asked whether the state government intended to use the governor’s action as a pretext to take a politically partisan and prejudiced approach towards dissolving the existing PSC, or whether it was prepared to condemn the governor’s position. If the government intended to directly or indirectly support unlawful actions by governors, it would have to pay a heavy price, he warned, adding that such support would encourage authoritarian tendencies.

The Keralam PSC has been carrying out government recruitment in a commendable manner, Pinarayi said. The commission has enabled appointments for lakhs of job aspirants over the past ten years.

He alleged that an organised effort and conspiracy were underway to undermine the credibility of the entire institution by citing allegations of irregularities in an individual recruitment process. He called for collective resistance against these efforts.