: Mann-Purohit tussle exposes fault lines between nominal, elected heads #IndiaNEWS #National <br>The latest face-off that might turn into a constitutional crisis in the border state was Governor

Mann-Purohit tussle exposes fault lines between nominal, elected heads #IndiaNEWS #National
<br>The latest face-off that might turn into a constitutional crisis in the border state was Governor Banwari Lal Purohits refusal to summon the budget session of the assembly from March 3.
It finally ended in the apex court that observed that the Governor was duty-bound to follow the advice of the state cabinet.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud, however, disapproved of the conduct of both Governor Purohit and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of the AAP for letting political differences come in the way of discharging their constitutional duties.
The Bench was also categorically clear in saying that the Chief Minister was also duty-bound to furnish information sought by the Governor.
Finally, the budget session is currently underway.
This was the not the first time that the battle escalated between the Governor and the Chief Minister.
The former has been accused of summoning top state functionaries on a regular basis and slamming the government for its failure to check the illicit flow of drugs and allowing its jails to become safe havens for gangsters.
After a recent two-day tour along the India-Pakistan border, Purohit, who says hes the states executive head, told the media, Jails are being used by criminals to run their mafias. Mobile phones are easily available in jails.
He lamented that policemen themselves were struggling with drug addiction. If the government is unable to deal with the situation, it should openly ask for help from the Centre.
Purohit claimed that sarpanches have informed him that drugs are being sold like ration in villages.
In the past one year, the Governor has been at loggerheads with the government on several occasions and issues ranging from the appointment of noted cardiologist Gurpreet Singh Wander as Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences in Faridkot town to the repatriation of IPS officer Kuldeep Chahal to his parent Punjab cadre.
The fallout of the war of supremacy is that Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, the states nodal agency for medical admissions and examinations, has been functioning without a full-time Vice-Chancellor for eight months now.
Purohit, in his capacity as chancellor of the state universities, in October last refused to clear the appointment of Wander as Vice-Chancellor, asking the government to shortlist a panel of three candidates.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has failed to recommend a panel of three names to the Governor for the post that fell vacant after one of the countrys top orthopaedic surgeons, Raj Bahadur, resigned on July 30 after citing humiliation by then Health Minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra.
Another breakdown of the governor-cabinet relationship is the long wait for Purohits assent to the bill passed by the legislature regarding the regularisation of services of contractual employees.