Interesting Facts about Governors of India ,Current Governors of States of India 2021 ,Current Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories of India ,Who can be appointed as the Governor? ,What are the duties and the powers of a Governor? ,Emergency Powers ,Judicial Powers ,Legislative Powers ,What is the term of Governor's office?

Dear Readers, Static Awareness is an essential part of all Banking and Insurance exams. In many exams such as SBI PO, SBI Clerk, IBPS PO, IBPS Clerk, LIC AAO, and NIACL AAO, etc. questions based on the recently appointed Governors of Indian States were asked. To boost your preparation for the examinations we have compiled the list of Governors of India, 2021 with their criteria for appointment, tenure, and powers. 

The Governors and Lieutenant governors are appointed by the President of India. The Governors and Lieutenant governors are executive heads of the states and the union territories respectively. There are 28 states and 8 union territories in India. 

Interesting Facts about Governors of India

• First governor-general of Bengal: Warren Hastings
• First governor-general of India: Lord William Bentinck
• First Viceroy of India: Lord Canning
• Last Viceroy of British India: Lord Mountbatten
• The first governor-general of Independent India: Lord Mountbatten
• First Indian governor-general of Independent India: C. Rajagopalachari
• The first female to become the governor of the Indian state: Sarojini Naidu
• Longest-serving governor of a state: Padmaja Naidu (11 years in West Bengal)

Current Governors of States of India 2021

States	Current Governor	First Governor of State after Independence	First Women Governor
Andhra Pradesh	Biswa Bhusan Harichandan	Chandulal Madhavlal Trivedi	Sharda Mukherjee
Arunachal Pradesh	B.D. Mishra	Bhishma Narain Singh	-
Assam	Jagdish Mukhi	Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari	-
Bihar	Phagu Chauhan	Jairamdas Daulatram	-
Chhattisgarh	Anusuiya Uikey	D. N. Sahay	Anusuiya Uikey
Goa	Bhagat Singh Koshyari	Maj Gen K. P. Candeth (Military Governor)	-
Gujarat	Acharya Dev Vrat	Mehdi Nawaz Jung	Sharda Mukherjee
Haryana	Satyadev Narayan Arya	Dharma Vira	-
Himachal Pradesh	Bandaru Dattatraya	S. Chakravarti	Sheila Kaul
Jharkhand	Draupadi Murmu	Parbhat Kumar	Draupadi Murmu
Karnataka	Vajubhai Vala	Jayachamaraja Wodeyar	V. S. Ramadevi
Kerala	Arif Mohammed Khan	Burgula Ramakrishna Rao	Jyothi Venkatachalam
Madhya Pradesh	Anandiben Patel	Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya	Sarla Grewal
Maharashtra	Bhagat Singh Koshyari	Sir John Colville	Vijayalakshmi Pandit
Manipur	Najma Heptulla	B. K. Nehru	Najma Heptulla
Meghalaya	Satya Pal Malik	Braj Kumar Nehru	-
Mizoram	PS Sreedharan Pillai	S.P.Mukherjee	-
Nagaland	R.N.Ravi	Vishnu Sahay	-
Odisha	Ganeshi Lal	Dr. Kailash Nath Katju	-
Punjab	V. P. Singh Badnore	Chandulal Madhavlal Trivedi	-
Rajasthan	Kalraj Mishra	Gurumukh Nihal Singh	Pratibha Patil
Sikkim	Ganga Prasad	B.B. Lal	-
Tamil Nadu	Banwarilal Purohit	General Sir Archibald Edward Nye	Fathima Beevi
Telangana	Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan	E. S. L. Narasimhan	-
Tripura	Ramesh Bais	B. K. Nehru	-
Uttar Pradesh	Anandi Ben Patel	Sarojini Naidu (United Province), Sri Hormasji Peroshaw Mody (When renamed as Uttar Pradesh)	Sarojini Naidu (United Province)
Uttarakhand	Baby Rani Maurya	Surjit Singh Barnala	-
West Bengal	Jagdeep Dhankhar	Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari	Padmaja Naidu

Current Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories of India

Union Territories	Current Lieutenant Governor/Administrators	First Lieutenant Governor	First woman Lieutenant Governor
Andaman and Nicobar Islands	Admiral (Retd) Devendra Kumar Joshi (LG)	-	-
Chandigarh	V. P. Singh Badnore (Admin)	-	-
Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu (Merged into single UT as on 26 January 2020)	Praful Khoda Patel (Admin)	-	-
Delhi	Anil Baijal (LG)	Aditya Nath Jha	-
Jammu & Kashmir	Manoj Sinha (LG)
Lakshadweep	Praful Khoda Patel (Additional Charge)	-	-
Puducherry	Tamilisai Soundararajan (Additional Charge)	S.L. Silam	Chandrawati
Ladakh	Radha Krishna Mathur (LG)

Now, Let's discuss the eligibility criteria, tenure, duty, and powers of Governors. 

Who can be appointed as the Governor?

Article 153, in Part VI of the Indian constitution, says, "There shall be a Governor for each State. Provided that nothing in this Article shall prevent the appointment of the same person as Governor for two or more States." It means one person can be appointed as Governor for two or more states. 

A candidate can only be appointed as the governor of any State/UT, If he/she fulfils the following conditions, as written in article 157 & 158: 

1. The Governor shall be a citizen of India.
2. The Governor shall be of age 35 years and more. 
3. The Governor shall not be a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of the Legislature of any State specified in the First Schedule, and if a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of the Legislature of any such State be appointed Governor, he shall be deemed to have vacated his seat in that House on the date on which he enters upon his office as Governor.
4. The Governor shall not hold any other office of profit.

What is the term of Governor's office?

The term which is defined under article 156 of the Indian constitution of the governor's office is normally 5 years. During his tenure, he/she is entitled to the various emoluments, allowances, and privileges which are determined by Parliament by law or as mentioned under the second schedule. Additionally, these emoluments and allowances cannot be diminished during his/her term of office. 

In some special conditions where the same person is appointed as Governor of two or more States, the emoluments and allowances payable to Governor will be allocated among the states in proportions determined by the President. 

Generally, Governors serve until the expiration of his term, but they can be terminated earlier if:

• The Governor is dismissed by the President, at whose pleasure he holds the office. It means the President on the advice Prime Minister of the country can dismiss the Governor. 
• The Governor may, by writing under his hand addressed to the President, resign his office.

What are the duties and the powers of a Governor?

The Governor is the head of a state. The Governor is the nominal head of a state, while the Chief Minister is the executive head. Furthermore, Governor functions as a link between the Union Government and the State Government. 

The Governor's power can be classified into three categories, which are:

Legislative Powers

• As the Governor is said to be a part of the State Legislature, he has the right of addressing and sending messages, summoning, deferring and dissolving the State Legislature, just like the President has, in respect to the Parliament. Although these are formal powers, in reality, the Governor must be guided by the Chief Minister and his Council of Ministers before making such decisions.
• The Governor inaugurates the state legislature and the first session of each year, by addressing the Assembly, outlining the new administrative policies of the ruling government.
• The Governor lays before the State Legislature, the annual financial statement and also makes demands for grants and recommendation of ‘Money Bills’.
• The Governor constitutes the State Finance Commission. He also holds the power to make advances out of the Contingency Fund of the State in the case of any unforeseen circumstances.
• All bills passed by the Legislative Assembly become law, only after the Governor approves them. In case it is not a money bill, the Governor holds the right to send it back to the Vidhan Sabha for reconsideration. But if the Vidhan Sabha sends back the Bill to the Governor the second time, then he has to sign it.
• The Governor has the power to promulgate an ordinance when the Legislative Assembly is not in session, and a law has to be brought into effect immediately. However, the ordinance is presented in the state legislature in the next session, and remains operative for a total of six weeks, unless it is approved by the legislature. 

Judicial Powers

• The Governor can grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remission of punishments. He can also suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of an offence against the law.
• The Governor is consulted by the President in the appointment of the Chief Justice to the High Court of that particular state.

Emergency Powers

• In case no political party bags a majority in the Vidhan Sabha of the state, the Governor holds the power to use his discretion to select the Chief Minister.
• The Governor informs the President in an official report, of a particular emergency arisen in the state, and imposes ‘President’s Rule’ on the behalf of the President. The Governor, in such circumstances, overrides the advice or functions of the Council of Ministers, and directs upon himself, the workings of the state.

 

We have launched a batch for SBI & IBPS Clerk 2021: A Complete Course to assist you in realizing your dream job. This course is designed to boost your IBPS Clerk and SBI Clerk 2021 preparation. It includes 200+ live classes, 70+ mock tests, and 7000+ quizzes. Enrol for the course to crack the IBPS Clerk/SBI Clerk exam.