No customary new year address by Kerala Governor in Assembly

Thiruvananthapuram: Deviating from the norm, the customary address of Kerala Governor to the state legislature on the opening day of a new session in the new year will not take place in 2023 with the state cabinet on Wednesday deciding to extend the Assembly session beyond this year.

The development comes a day after the Pinarayi Vijayan government passed a Bill removing the Kerala Governor Arif Mohhamad Khan as the chancellor of 14 universities in the state. As per the general norm, after one session of the Assembly ends, the cabinet informs the governor that the session has been prorogued, but on Wednesday, it decided to continue the present session.

This time, with Khan and the Vijayan government not even on talking terms, this act of extending the session to the new year was on the cards and has happened now. Hence the 7th session will now continue into the new year and will end with the presentation of the budget for the 2023-24 fiscal.