A brief history of India's sacked governors

On September 12, 2016, a presidential order led to the removal of Arunachal Pradesh governor, Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, from office. It was probably the first instance when an incumbent government sacked its own appointee.

The first governor to be sacked was Prabhudas Patwari, the then governor of Tamil Nadu. He was removed by the Indira Gandhi government in 1980. Patwari had been sworn in 1977 by the Janata Party government.

Then, in 1981, the Indira Gandhi government went after Rajasthan governor Raghukul Tilak. He too was an appointee of the previous Janata Party government led by Morarji Desai. Tilak approached the high court against the decision, but the court refused to get involved.

Then came VP Singh, who, in 1989, took the monumental decision to secure the resignation of all governors so that the government alone could decide who should stay and who was to leave. Thankfully, the unique initiative could not be pursued as there were intra government differences and more pressing issues that demanded the state's immediate attention.

In 2001, the NDA government, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, removed the then Tamil Nadu governor Justice (Rtd) Fathima Beevi. Incidentally, she was the first woman judge to be promoted to the Supreme Court and the only woman governor of Tamil Nadu. She was, perhaps, a victim to the political rivalry between DMK chief M Karunanidhi and AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha. DMK was a part of the then NDA government while AIADMK ruled the state.

The last time an incumbent government sacked governors appointed by the previous dispensation was in July 2004. PM Dr Manmohan Singh had "advised (read asked)" the then President APJ Abdul Kalam to remove four serving governors - Vishnu Kant Shastri of Uttar Pradesh, Kailashpati Mishra of Gujarat, Babu Parmanand of Haryana and Kidar Nath Sahni of Goa. However, the apex court took a very dim view of the whole matter and passed extremely adverse comments.

In 2010, the Supreme Court had remarked: “The governor cannot be removed on the ground that he is out of sync with the policies and ideologies of the Union government or the party in power at the Centre. Nor can he be removed on the ground that the Union government has lost confidence in him.”