SC ex-judge Nazeer, 5 others appointed Guvs

NEW DELHI: The government on Sunday appointed six new faces as governors, including retired Supreme Court judge S Abdul Nazeer, who was part of the historic 2019 Ayodhya verdict, and four BJP leaders, besides carrying out a rejig of the gubernatorial posts in seven states.

According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson, President Droupadi Murmu has accepted the resignations of Bhagat Singh Koshyari and RK Mathur as the governor of Maharashtra and the lieutenant governor of Ladakh respectively.

Ramesh Bais, the governor of Jharkhand, has been appointed governor of Maharashtra.

Koshyari, who has been in the line of opposition fire over his remarks on Chhatrapati Shivaji, said last month that he had conveyed his desire to quit to PM Modi and that he would like to spend the remainder of his life reading and writing.

Koshyari, 80, took charge as Maharashtra governor in 2019 at a time of a turmoil following Shiv Sena severing its ties with the BJP. He administered the oath of office to Devendra Fadnavis as the chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar as the deputy chief minster, which lasted only three days.

When the Uddhav Thakeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi was in power, he had several run-ins with the government on a range of issues, including the appointment of 12 members to the state legislative council from the gubernatorial quota, which he never approved.

It was not immediately known what reasons prompted Mathur’s resignation.

The President appointed Governor of Arunachal Pradesh Brig BD Mishra (retd) in his place.

Justice Nazeer, a former Supreme court judge will be taking over as the new governor of Andhra Pradesh. The incumbent, Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, has been shifted to Chhattisgarh.

Justice Nazeer, who retired on January 4, has been part of several path-breaking verdicts, including those on the politically sensitive Ayodhya land dispute, instant ‘triple talaq’, pleas challenging demonetisation validity, and the one that declared ‘right to privacy’ a fundamental right.