RAS question
Article 153 provides that there shall be a Governor for each State. Can one person be Governor of two or more States?
Correct answer: (D) Yes, under Article 153 as amended by the 7th Amendment.
One person can be appointed as Governor for two or more States under the proviso added to Article 153 by the Seventh Amendment Act, 1956.
Explanation
Article 153 begins with the rule that there shall be a Governor for each State, but the important exam point is the proviso added to that article. The official Constitution text says that nothing in Article 153 prevents the appointment of the same person as Governor for two or more States. Its footnote records that this proviso was added by section 6 of the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956, with effect from 1 November 1956. So the article does not insist on a separate individual for every State. This arrangement can be used when the number of Governors has to be reduced.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Article 153's proviso directly contradicts this by allowing the same person to be Governor for two or more States.
- (B) The Article 153 proviso is not framed as an Emergency-only exception; it simply permits such an appointment.
- (C) The cited Article 153 proviso does not make the arrangement conditional on Parliament's prior approval.
Concept
This tests the constitutional position of the Governor under Part VI and the effect of constitutional amendments on apparently simple articles. RAS repeats such questions because they catch candidates who remember the opening line of an article but miss its proviso.