Tamil Nadu governor refuses to deliver customary address

Context: Governor of Tamil Nadu refused to deliver the customary address of Governor in the Legislative Assembly of Madras.

Constitutional provision regarding customary address:

The origin of the practice of customary address can be traced to the Government of India Act, 1919.
Article 87: President shall address both houses of the Parliament assembled together at the commencement of the first session after each general election to the House of People and at the commencement of the first session of each year.
Provisions regarding the address shall be made by the respective houses i.e. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively.
Article 176: Governor shall address the state legislative assembly and in case of state legislative council, both the houses together.
Provisions regarding the address shall be made by the respective houses.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan modified the portions of the text of customary address on his discretion. Meanwhile, this has been the case in many non -BJP ruled states like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Article 163- There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions, except in so far as he is by or under this Constitution required to exercise his functions or any of them in his discretion.
If any question arises whether any matter is or is not a matter required to act in his discretion, the decision of the Governor in his discretion shall be final, and the validity of anything done by the Governor shall not be called in question on the ground that he ought or ought not to have acted in his discretion.
But, Governor has used the above discretion provision in exercising discretion in delivering customary address.
Important Cases related to Customary Address
In Yogendra Singh Handa vs State of Rajasthan (1967), Rajasthan High Court held that some portion read by governor was good enough to deem the whole address as read (Context: Then Rajasthan governor did not read the full address).
In the Abdul Ghafoor Habibullah case, Kolkata high court held that governor cannot decline to deliver his address and refuse to fulfil his constitutional duty.

Practice MCQ

Q) Consider the following statements:

1. Article 176 of the constitution provides for customary address by Governor in State assembly.

2. Governor has discretionary power in reading out the text of the address and is officially held liable for text of the address.

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) None

Answer- a

Solution explanation:

1. Article 176- The Governor shall address the state legislative assembly and in case of state legislative council, both the houses together. So, statement 1 is correct.
2. In the Abdul Gafoor Habibullah case, Kolkata high court held that governor cannot decline to deliver his address and refuse to fulfil his constitutional duty. So, he does not exercise any discretion in this regard. So, statement 2 is incorrect.