9. Draft Constitution as published in the Gazette of India, dated 26th February 1948 with Dr. Ambedkar’s letter dated 21st February 1948 to Dr. Rajendra Prasad,President of the Constituent Assembly of India - Page 198

THE DRAFT CONSTITUTION 165

THE GAZETTE OF INDIA EXTRAORDINARY, FEB. 26,1948 197

(b) the resolution has been supported by not

less than two-thirds of the total member ship of the Assembly.

(3) When a charge has been so preferred, the

Speaker of the Assembly shall inform the Chairman 5

of the Council of States and thereupon the Council of

States shall appoint a committee which may consist

of or include persons who are not members of the

Council, to investigate the charge and the Governor

shall have the right to appear and to be represented 10

at such investigation.

(4) If as a result of the investigation a resolution

is passed, supported by not less than two-thirds of the

total membership of the Council of States declaring

that the charge preferred against the Governor has 15

been sustained, such resolution shall have the effect

of removing the Governor from his office as from the

date on which the resolution is communicated to the

Speaker of the Assembly.

Power of *138. The Legislature of a State may make such 20 the Legisla- provision as it thinks fit/The President may make ture of the such provision as he thinks fit for the discharge of the functions of the Governor of the/a State in any State/the contingency not provided for in this Chapter. President to

provide for *If the second alternative is adopted in article 131, the words the discharge “The President may make such provision as he thinks fit” will have to be used in this article instead of the words “The Legisof the func- lature of a State may make such provision as it thinks fit” and tions of the the words “a State” will have to be used for the words “the State” Governor in in this article. The Committee is of opinion that whether the Governor is certain con- elected by the people or appointed by the President from a panel tingencies. elected by the Legislature, it is unnecessary to have a Deputy Governor. Unlike the Vice-President at the Centre, the Deputy

Governor cannot be made ex-officio Chairman of the Upper House,

because in most of the States there will be no Upper House. The

result is that the Deputy Governor will have no definite function

to perform so long as the Governor is there. The only ground for

creating the office of a Deputy Governor appears to be that there

must be some person to step into the position of the Governor

upon the occurrence of a sudden vacancy. The making of such a

provision can be left to the Legislature of the State or to the Presi dent, as the case may be, e.g., the Legislature or the President

may provide in advance that, in the event of a sudden vacancy

occurring in the office of the Governor, the Chief Justice shall

discharge the functions of the Governor ( cf. paragraph. 6 of the

Letters Patent constituting the office of Governor-General of the

Union of South Africa, where it is provided that the Chief Justice

of South Africa may, in certain contingencies, exercise the powers

of the Governor-General.)