Article 163 — Article 163 — Council of Ministers to Aid and Advise Governor

(1) 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. (2) If any question arises whether any matter is or is not a matter as respects which the Governor is by or under this Constitution 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.

Source: Constitution of India, as published by the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Article 163 is the state-level equivalent of Article 74. The clause preserving Governor's discretion was included because there are situations (a hung assembly, a breakdown of constitutional machinery) where the Governor must make a genuinely independent judgment. But courts have consistently narrowed the scope of this discretion.

• Article 153
• Article 154
• Article 164
• Article 200
• Article 356

Last reviewed: 3 July 2026