The Government of Bihar, known locally as the State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

and its 9 divisions which consist of 38 districts . It consists of an executive, led by the Governor of Bihar, a

judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

and legislative branches. Like other states in India, the head of state of Bihar is the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

, appointed by the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murm ...

on the advice of the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or del ...

. The head of state is largely ceremonial. The Chief Minister is the head of government and is vested with most of the executive powers.

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

is the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

of Bihar. The Patna High Court, located in Patna, has jurisdiction over the whole state. The present legislative structure of Bihar is

bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single gr ...

. The

Legislative A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

houses are the

Bihar Vidhan Sabha The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated ...

(

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated ...

) and Bihar Vidhan Parishad (

Bihar Legislative Council Bihar Vidhan Parishad, also known as Bihar Legislative Council, is the upper house of the bicameral Bihar Legislature of the state of Bihar in India. History A new Province of Bihar and Odisha was created by the Government of India on 12 Dece ...

). Their normal term is five years, unless dissolved earlier.

Executive

Governor

The Governors of the

states of India State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * '' State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our ...

have similar powers and functions at the state level as those of the

at Union level. Governors exist in the states while lieutenant governors or administrator exist in union territories. According to the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ...

, the

is a state's head, but ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...

'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. The governor acts as the nominal head whereas the real power lies with the Chief ministers of the states and his/her councils of ministers. The Governor of a State is appointed by the President of India. The factors based on which the President evaluates the candidates is not mentioned in the Constitution. In his ex-officio capacity, the Governor of Bihar is Chancellor of the universities of Bihar (at present 12) as per the Acts of the Universities.

Chief Minister

In the

Republic of India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

, a chief minister is the elected

head of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a ...

of the each state out of 28 states and sometimes a union territory (currently, only the UTs of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and Puducherry have serving Chief Ministers). Following elections to the

, the governor usually invites the party (or coalition) with a majority of seats to form the government. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose

council of ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or ...

are collectively responsible to the assembly. Given that he has the confidence of the assembly, the chief minister's term is for five years and is subject to no

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...

s. Durga Das Basu. ''Introduction to the Constitution of India''. 1960. 20th Edition, 2011 Reprint. pp. 241, 245. LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur. . Note: although the text talks about Indian state governments in general, it applies for the specific case of Bihar as well. In 1946 First Cabinet of Bihar formed; consisting of two members, Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha as first Chief Minister of Bihar and Dr.

Anugrah Narayan Sinha Anugrah Narayan Sinha (18 June 1887 – 5 July 1957), known as '' Bihar Vibhuti'', was an Indian nationalist statesman, participant in Champaran Satyagraha, Gandhian & one of the architects of modern Bihar, who was the first Deputy Chief Minist ...

as Bihar's first

Deputy Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

cum Finance Minister (also in charge of Labour, Health, Agriculture and Irrigation). Other ministers were inducted later. The cabinet served as the first Bihar Government after independence in 1947. From 1946, 23 people have been Chief Minister of Bihar. The inaugural holder was Sri Krishna Sinha of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

, he also has the longest incumbency. The current incumbent is

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician, who is serving as Chief Minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previous held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. The leader of the Janata Dal (Unit ...

who is having incumbency since 22 February 2015.

Deputy Chief Minister

Despite being not mentioned in the constitution or law, the Deputy-Chief minister office is often used to pacify factions within the party or coalition. It is similar to the rarely used Deputy-Prime minister post in Central government of India. During the absence of the Chief minister, the deputy-CM may chair cabinet meetings and lead the Assembly majority. Various deputy chief ministers have also taken the oath of secrecy in line with the one that chief minister takes. This oath has also sparked controversies.

Ministry

The government is headed by the governor who appoints the chief minister and his council of ministers. The governor is appointed for five years and acts as the constitutional head of the state. Even though the governor remains the ceremonial head of the state, the day-to-day running of the government is taken care of by the chief minister and his council of ministers in whom a great deal of legislative powers is vested.. The secretariat headed by the secretary to the governor assists the council of ministers. The council of ministers consists of cabinet ministers, ministers of state and deputy ministers. The chief minister is assisted by the chief secretary, who is the head of the administrative services.

Legislature

State government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

s in India are the governments ruling

and the chief minister heads the state government. Power is

divided Division is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the ways that numbers are combined to make new numbers. The other operations are addition, subtraction, and multiplication. At an elementary level the division of two natural numbe ...

between union government and state governments. State government's legislature is

in 6 states and

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

in the rest. Bihar is one of the six states where bicameral legislature exists. Other states are

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 195 ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdi ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 35 ...

and

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. The

is Vidhan Parishad serves as the upper house and

Vidhan Sabha The State Legislative Assembly, or Vidhan Sabha, or also Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in the states and union territories of India. In the 28 states and 3 union territories with a unicameral state legislature, it is the sole legislati ...

serves as the lower house of the

legislature of the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

n state of

. Lower house is elected with 5 years term, while in upper house 1/3 of the total members in the house gets elected every 2 years with 6-year term.

Vidhan Sabha

The Vidhan Sabha is also known as Legislative Assembly. The Bihar Legislative Assembly first came into being in 1937 and not a permanent body and subject to dissolution. The tenure of the Legislative Assembly is five years from the date appointed for its first sitting unless dissolved sooner. Members of the Legislative Assembly are directly elected by the people. There are three sessions (Budget session, Monsoon session, Winter session) every year. The Sessions of Legislative Assembly are presided by Speaker. The Speaker certifies that whether a bill is ordinary bill or money bill. Generally he does not participate in voting but he casts his vote in the case of tie. The current strength of the House is 243.

Vidhan Parishad

The Vidhan Parishad is also known as Legislative Council. Bihar Legislative Council is a permanent body and not subject to dissolution. But as nearly as possible, one-third of the members thereof retire as soon as may be on the expiration of every second year. Members are now elected or nominated for six years and one-third of them retire every second year. The presiding officers of Vidhan Parishad are now known as chairman and Deputy Chairman. Members of the upper house, the Legislative Council are indirectly elected through an electoral college. There are 27 Committees which are, at present, functional in the council. Besides, there are three Financial Committees consisting of the members of the two Houses of the State Legislature.

Judiciary

High Court

The Patna High Court ( hi, पटना उच्च न्यायालय) is the High Court of the state of Bihar. The Patna High Court is the principle civil courts in

. However, a high court exercises its original civil and criminal jurisdiction only if the subordinate courts are not authorized by law to try such matters for lack of pecuniary, territorial jurisdiction. High courts may also enjoy original jurisdiction in certain matters, if so designated Specially in a state or federal law It was established on February 3, 1916, and later affiliated under the ''

Government of India The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

Act, 1915''. The court is headquartered in Patna, the administrative

of the state. A proclamation was made by the Governor-General of India on 22 March 1912. The foundation-stone of the High Court Building was laid on 1 December 1913 by the late Viceroy and Governor-General of India, Sir Charles Hardinge of Penshurst. The Patna High Court building on its completion was formally opened by the same Viceroy on 3 February 1916. Hon. Sir Justice

Edward Maynard Des Champs Chamier Sir Edward Maynard Des Champs Chamier KCSI, KCIE (4 June 1866 – 17 November 1945) was a British Indian judge and the first Chief Justice of the Patna High Court. Career Sir Edward Chamier passed Indian Civil Service. He was knighted on 1 Janu ...

was the first Chief Justice of Patna High Court. This High Court has given two

Chief Justices of India Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...

: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha, the 6th C.J.I., and Hon. Mr. Justice Lalit Mohan Sharma, the 24th C.J.I..Hon. The Chief Justice Mr. Sanjay Karol is the current Chief Justice of Patna High Court. . Patna High Court has are 53 Judges which includes 40 permanent and 13 additional judges.

District Courts

The District Courts of

are the district courts of the

State governments in India State governments in India are the governments ruling over 28 states and 8 union territories of India and the head of the Council of Ministers in a state is the Chief Minister. Power is divided between the Union government and state governm ...

for every district or for one or more districts together taking into account of the number of cases, population distribution in the district. They administer justice in India at a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

level. Bihar has total 37 district courts. The Civil Court District Court is judged by District and Sessions Judge.This is the principal court of original

civil jurisdiction Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience * Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a mem ...

besides the High Court of the State and which derives its jurisdiction in civil matters primarily from the code of civil procedure. The district court is also a court of sessions when it exercises its jurisdiction on criminal matters under the Code of Criminal procedure. The district court is presided over by a district judge appointed by the state governor with on the advice of chief justice of that high court. In addition to the district judge there may be a number of additional district judges and assistant district judges depending on the workload. The additional district judge and the court presided have equivalent jurisdiction as the district judge and his district court.

Elections and Politics

India has a quasi-federal form of government, called "union" or "central" government, with elected officials at the union, state and local levels. At the national level, the

, the

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

, is appointed by the

president of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murm ...

from the party or coalition that has the majority of seats in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

. The members of the

(Center) and

are directly elected for a term of five years by universal adult suffrage through a

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast the ...

voting system. Members of the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

, which represents the states, are elected by the members of State legislative assemblies by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

, except for 12 members who are nominated by the president. In Bihar Vidhan Parishad, 1/3 of the total members in the house gets elected every 2 years with 6-year term. there are two main political formations: the

National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a centre-right to right-wing and conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was founded in 1998 and currently controls the government of In ...

(NDA) which comprises

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

(BJP, Indian People's Party), Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) and Janata Dal (United) (JDU); and a second alliance between

Rashtriya Janata Dal The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: ''National People's Party'') is an Indian political party, based in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Kerala. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has tradit ...

(RJD, National People's Party),

Hindustani Awam Morcha Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) ( translation: ''Indian People's Front''; abbreviated as HAM-S) is an Indian political party having presence in Bihar. HAM(S) got new symbol wok in Bihar Assembly Election 2020. Formation It was launched form ...

Rashtriya Lok Samta Party Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (abbreviated as RLSP; translation: ''National People's Equity Party'') was a political party in India led by Upendra Kushwaha. It was launched on 3 March 2013 and was based in the state of Bihar. The party came into ex ...

and

(INC). There are many other political formations. The

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

had a strong presence in Bihar at one time, which has since weakened. The

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...

CPI(M) and CPM and

All India Forward Bloc The All India Forward Bloc ( AIFB) is a left-wing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party ...

(AIFB) have a minor presence, along with the other extreme leftist parties.

Administration and Local governments

Local governments function at the basic level. It is the third level of government apart from union and state governments. It consists of panchayats in rural areas and

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

in urban areas. They are elected directly or indirectly by the people.

Government agencies

* Information and Public Relations Department, Bihar

References

External links

* {{Government of India by state or territory