List of governors of Meghalaya

Governor of Meghalaya
Governor of Meghalaya
	Emblem of Meghalaya
	Incumbent; C. H. Vijayashankar; since 30 July 2024
Style	His Excellency
Residence	Raj Bhavan; Shillong
Appointer	President of India
Term length	Five Years
Inaugural holder	Braj Kumar Nehru
Formation	21 January 1972; 52 years ago
Website	meggovernor.gov.in

The Governor of Meghalaya serves as the ceremonial head of the state, acting as the President of India's representative. Appointed by the President, the governor holds a five-year term but can remain in office as long as the President desires. The governor's official residence is the Raj Bhavan.

The position of the governor of Meghalaya came into existence following the creation of the state in January 1972 as a result of the bifurcation of Assam. The first governor was Braj Kumar Nehru, then governor of Assam who held the additional charge of the governor of the newly created state of Meghalaya from 21 January 1972 until his transfer on 19 September 1973. From 1972 until 1989, the Governor of Assam held the additional charge of the Governor of Meghalaya. The first full-time governor of the state was A. A. Rahim who served from 27 July 1989 until 8 May 1990.

The current governor is Phagu Chauhan who has been in office since 18 February 2023 and had previously served as the Governor of Bihar. The longest-serving governor of the state is M. M. Jacob who served for 11 years, 296 days from 19 June 1995 until retiring on 11 April 2007.

History

The position of the Governor of Meghalaya came into existence after the creation of Meghalaya as in independent state on 21 January 1972. The inaugural holder of the office was Braj Kumar Nehru, the Governor of Assam who held the charge of the Governor of Meghalaya until his transfer in September 1973. His successors in Assam, namely Lallan Prasad Singh, Prakash Mehrotra, Justice Tribeni Sahai Misra (Acting), Bhishma Narain Singh and Harideo Joshi concurrently held the additional charge of the Governor of Meghalaya. The first full-time governor was appointed in July 1989 with A. A. Rahim who served until May 1990. Since then, Meghalaya has had all full-time governors, except for few occasions.

Following the retirement of M. M. Jacob, the state's longest serving governor in 2007, then Manipur Governor Shivinder Singh Sidhu held the additional charge as the state's governor from 29 October 2007 until the appointment of Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary on 30 June 2008. West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi held the additional charge of the governorship from 6 January 2015 until 19 May 2015 after then governor Krishan Kant Paul was appointed as Governor of Uttarakhand. Assam Governor Banwarilal Purohit held the additional charge of the state's governor from 27 January 2017 till 5 October 2017 after the resignation of V. Shanmuganathan, while Arunachal Governor B. D. Mishra held the charge of the state's governorship from 4 October 2022 till 13 February 2023 following the retirement of Satyapal Malik.

Powers and functions

The governor enjoys many different types of powers:

Executive powers related to administration, appointments and removals,
Legislative powers related to lawmaking and the state legislature, that is Vidhan Sabha or Vidhan Parishad, and
Discretionary powers to be carried out according to the discretion of the governor.

Apart from enjoying various constitutional powers, the governor of Meghalaya also the Chief Rector of the North Eastern Hill University, the sole central university in the state.

List of governors

This is a list of the governors of Meghalaya state in northeastern India. Meghalaya became an autonomous state within Assam on 1 April 1970 and a separate state on 21 January 1972.^[1]

Key

^† Died in office
^§ Resigned from office
^ẟ Removed from office

Legend

indicate acting governors/ governors holding additional charge

No.	Name (born – died)	Portrait	Home state	Tenure in office			Immediate prior position held	Appointed by
No.	Name (born – died)	Portrait	Home state	From	To	Time in office	Immediate prior position held	Appointed by
1	Braj Kumar Nehru ICS (Retd.) Governor of Assam (1909–2001)		Uttar Pradesh	21 January 1972	18 September 1973	1 year, 240 days	Governor of Assam (continued)	V. V. Giri (President)
2	Lallan Prasad Singh ICS (Retd.) Governor of Assam (1912–1998)		Bihar	19 September 1973	10 August 1981	7 years, 325 days	Governor of Assam (continued)	V. V. Giri (President)
3	Prakash Mehrotra Governor of Assam (1925–1988)		Uttar Pradesh	11 August 1981	28 March 1984^[§]	2 years, 230 days	Governor of Assam (continued)	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (President)
–	Justice Tribeni Sahai Misra Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court & Acting Governor of Assam (1922–2005) (Acting)		Uttar Pradesh	29 March 1984	15 April 1984	17 days	Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court and Acting Governor of Assam (continued)	Zail Singh (President)
4	Bhishma Narain Singh Governor of Assam (1933–2018)		Bihar	16 April 1984	10 May 1989	5 years, 24 days	Governor of Assam (continued)	Zail Singh (President)
5	Harideo Joshi Governor of Assam (1920–1995)		Rajasthan	11 May 1989	21 July 1989	71 days	Governor of Assam (continued)	Ramaswamy Venkataraman (President)
6	A. A. Rahim (1920–1995)		Kerala	27 July 1989	8 May 1990	285 days	Union Minister of State for External Affairs (until 1984)
7	Madhukar Dighe (1920–2014)		Uttar Pradesh	9 May 1990	18 June 1995	5 years, 40 days	Cabinet Minister of Finance, Uttar Pradesh (until 1979)
8	M. M. Jacob (1926–2018)		Kerala	19 June 1995	11 April 2007	11 years, 296 days	Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha	Shankar Dayal Sharma (President)
9	Banwari Lal Joshi IPS (Retd.) (1936–2017)		Rajasthan	12 April 2007	28 October 2007	199 days	Lieutenant Governor of Delhi	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (President)
–	Shivinder Singh Sidhu IAS (Retd.) Governor of Manipur (1929–2018) (Additional Charge)		Punjab	29 October 2007	30 June 2008	245 days	Governor of Manipur (continued)	Pratibha Patil (President)
10	Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary IPS (Retd.) (born 1947)		Assam	1 July 2008	30 June 2013	4 years, 364 days	Chief Information Commissioner, Assam	Pratibha Patil (President)
11	Krishan Kant Paul IPS (Retd.) (born 1948)		Chandigarh	1 July 2013	6 January 2015	1 year, 189 days	Member, Union Public Service Commission	Pranab Mukherjee (President)
–	Keshari Nath Tripathi Governor of West Bengal (1934–2023) (Additional Charge)		Uttar Pradesh	6 January 2015	19 May 2015	133 days	Governor of West Bengal (continued)
12	V. Shanmuganathan (born 1949)		Tamil Nadu	20 May 2015	27 January 2017^[§]	1 year, 252 days
–	Banwarilal Purohit Governor of Assam (born 1940) (Additional Charge)		Maharashtra	27 January 2017	5 October 2017	251 days	Governor of Assam (continued)
13	Ganga Prasad (born 1939)		Bihar	5 October 2017	25 August 2018	324 days	Member, Bihar Legislative Council	Ram Nath Kovind (President)
14	Tathagata Roy (born 1945)		West Bengal	25 August 2018	18 December 2019	1 year, 115 days	Governor of Tripura
–	R. N. Ravi IPS (Retd.) Governor of Nagaland (born 1952) (Acting)		Bihar	18 December 2019	26 January 2020	39 days	Governor of Nagaland (continued)
(14)	Tathagata Roy (born 1945)		West Bengal	27 January 2020	18 August 2020	204 days	Governor of Meghalaya
15	Satya Pal Malik (born 1946)		Uttar Pradesh	18 August 2020	3 October 2022	2 years, 46 days	Governor of Goa
–	Brigadier (Retd.) B. D. Mishra Governor of Arunachal Pradesh (born 1939) (Additional Charge)		Uttar Pradesh	4 October 2022	13 February 2023	132 days	Governor of Arunachal Pradesh (continued)
16	Phagu Chauhan (born 1948)		Uttar Pradesh	18 February 2023	29 July 2024	1 year, 159 days	Governor of Bihar	Droupadi Murmu (President)
17	C H Vijayashankar (born 1956)		Karnataka	30 July 2024	Incumbent	97 days	Environment and Forest Minister of Karnataka	Droupadi Murmu (President)