In a reshuffle of Governors on Sunday, President Droupadi Murmu appointed former Supreme Court judge Justice S. Abdula Nazeer as one of the six new faces who will be sent to six States as Constitutional Heads.
Justice Nazeer (retd), who was part of the five-judge bench that delivered the November 2019 Ayodhya verdict, has been appointed as the new Governor of Andhra Pradesh. Notably, the former Supreme Court judge, who also headed the five-judge Constitution bench that upheld the Centre’s decision to demonetise ₹500 and ₹1000 currency notes in November 2016, retired last month.
The appointment of a former Supreme Court judge as a Governor was questioned by some Opposition leaders, with the Congress communications chief’ Jairam Ramesh sharing a 2012 comment of the late BJP leader and former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who said, “Pre-retirement judgments are influenced by the desire of a post-retirement job”.
In the reshuffle, the President also accepted the resignations of Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Ladakh Lieutenant Governor R.K. Mathur.
Four leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including Gulab Chand Kataria, who was serving as the Leader of the Opposition in Rajasthan, have also been appointed as Governors. While Mr. Kataria will be the new Governor of Assam, other BJP leaders who were nominated for governorship are Lakshman Prasad Acharya for Sikkim, C.P. Radhakrishnan for Jharkhand and Shiv Pratap Shukla for Himachal Pradesh.
In Maharashtra, Mr. Koshyari has been replaced by Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais, while the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh Brig. B.D. Mishra (retd) will replace Mr. Mathur in Ladakh. Lt. Gen. K.T. Parnaik (retd) will be the new Arunachal Pradesh Governor. The reshuffle also saw Chhattisgarh Governor Anusuiya Uikye moving to Manipur while the incumbent in Manipur, La Ganesan, was appointed as the Governor of Nagaland.
The stepping down of the Maharashtra and Ladakh Governors followed separate protests in the State and Union Territory, respectively. Besides, the appointment of Justice Nazeer as the Governor soon after his retirement is reminiscent of the 2020 nomination of former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi as a Rajya Sabha MP months after his retirement, which drew criticism from various quarters. The framers of our Constitution emphasised in the Constituent Assembly that the Governor be a non-political and “detached” figure. Instances of conflicts and public disagreements between Governors and elected State governments are plenty and in no way new to the country. As ties between the institution of the Governor and the State government rest and flourish on understanding and mutual respect, new appointments should be made to drive smooth governance and reinforce the vision of the Constitution makers.
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