List of governors of Meghalaya

Governor of Meghalaya
Governor of Meghalaya
	Emblem of Meghalaya
	Incumbent; Phagu Chauhan; since 13 February 2023
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 is the nominal head of state of the Indian state of Meghalaya and a representative of the president of India. The governor is appointed by the president for a term of five years and remains in office at the pleasure of the president. The official residence of the governor is 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 2022till 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.