Gujarat: State Government, Legislature and High Court

The official syllabus of General Studies-II asks about the functions and duties of the State Governments, constitutional authorities and the judiciary. This page applies those lines to Gujarat.

What the official syllabus says

GPSC Main Examination, Paper V: General Studies-II, (A) Indian Polity and Constitution:

• Functions and duties of the Indian Union and the State Governments.
• Constitutional Authorities: Powers, Functions and Responsibilities.
• Judiciary in India: Structure and functions, judicial review, Public Interest Litigation, Landmark Judgments.

Topics in detail

Formation of the State

• Gujarat formed on 1 May 1960 (Gujarat Sthapana Divas) under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960, which divided the bilingual Bombay State into Gujarat and Maharashtra
• Background: the Mahagujarat movement (studied in General Studies-I)
• Capital: first Ahmedabad, later Gandhinagar, a planned capital
• Article 371(2): the President may give the Governor of Gujarat special responsibility for separate development boards for Saurashtra, Kutch and the rest of Gujarat

State executive

• Governor of Gujarat: appointment, powers and discretion; Raj Bhavan, Gandhinagar
• Chief Minister and Council of Ministers; under the 91st Amendment the Council is limited to 15 per cent of 182, that is 27 members including the Chief Minister
• Advocate General of Gujarat (Article 165)
• Sachivalaya (secretariat) at Gandhinagar: Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, departments such as General Administration, Revenue, Home, Panchayats, Rural Housing and Rural Development, Urban Development and Urban Housing, Social Justice and Empowerment, Tribal Development
• Field administration: districts under Collectors; talukas under Mamlatdars; prants (sub-divisions) under Prant Officers; District Development Officers for district panchayats

Gujarat Legislative Assembly

• Unicameral legislature with 182 elected members; seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (13) and Scheduled Tribes (27)
• Gujarat sends 26 members to the Lok Sabha and 11 to the Rajya Sabha
• Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition
• Assembly committees: Public Accounts Committee, Estimates Committee, Committee on Public Undertakings, Committee on Subordinate Legislation
• Sessions, budget and law-making in the Assembly
• Laws of the former Bombay State continued in Gujarat after 1960 and adapted (many now carry the name 'Gujarat', such as the Gujarat Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949)

Gujarat High Court and subordinate judiciary

• High Court of Gujarat established on 1 May 1960 at Ahmedabad
• Writ jurisdiction under Article 226; supervision over subordinate courts (Article 227)
• District and sessions courts, civil courts, family courts and other special courts in the districts
• Gujarat State Legal Services Authority, district legal services authorities and Lok Adalats; the first Lok Adalat was held in Gujarat in 1982

Constitutional and state authorities in Gujarat

• Gujarat Public Service Commission (Article 315): recruitment for Class-1 and Class-2 posts of the State
• Gujarat State Election Commission (Article 243K): elections to panchayats and municipalities
• State Finance Commission (Article 243I)
• Accountant General's office (under the CAG) and the CAG's audit reports on Gujarat placed before the Assembly
• Gujarat State Commission for Women and the Gujarat State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (statutory bodies)

Gujarat and federalism

• Gujarat in the Western Zonal Council
• Inter-State issues: Narmada waters shared with Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan under the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal award (1979); the Narmada Control Authority
• Scheduled Areas of Gujarat under the Fifth Schedule and the Tribes Advisory Council
• Union Territory neighbours: Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu

Law and order and State laws

• Police administration: Director General of Police; police commissionerates in the large cities such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot; district Superintendents of Police
• Prohibition of liquor, in force in Gujarat since its formation under the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949 (now called the Gujarat Prohibition Act), and its link with Article 47
• Regions used in administration and planning: north Gujarat, central Gujarat, south Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch

Overlaps

General provisions on State governments are on Functions and Duties of the Union and State Governments; the history of the Mahagujarat movement is in General Studies-I.