List of governors of Jharkhand - Wikipedia

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Governor of Jharkhand
Emblem of Jharkhand
Incumbent Santosh Gangwar since 31 July 2024
Style	His/Her Excellency
Residence	Raj Bhavan; Ranchi
Appointer	President of India
Term length	At the pleasure of the President
Inaugural holder	Prabhat Kumar
Formation	15 November 1911; 113 years ago
Website	rajbhavanjharkhand.nic.in

The governor of Jharkhand is the nominal head of the Indian state of Jharkhand.^[1] The governor is appointed by the president of India. Though all official affairs of the state are administered and carried out in the name of the governor, the real executive power rests with the chief minister who is a member of the legislative assembly and is the leader of the majority party in the house. The official residence of the governor is Raj Bhavan.

The position of the governor of Jharkhand came into existence following the creation of the state in November 2000 as a result of the bifurcation of Bihar. The first governor to be appointed was Prabhat Kumar who served in office between 2000 and 2002. The current governor is Santosh Gangwar.

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.^[2]

Apart from enjoying various constitutional powers, the governor of Jharkhand is the ex-officio Chancellor of the state universities of Jharkhand. The universities include Binod Bihari Mahto Koyalanchal University, Birsa Agricultural University, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, Jharkhand Raksha Shakti University, Jharkhand University of Technology, Kolhan University, Nilamber-Pitamber University, Ranchi University, Sido Kanhu Murmu University, and Vinoba Bhave University.

In 1644 Gabriel Boughton, procured privileges for the East India Company which permitted them to build a factory at Hughli, without fortifications. In 1650, the factories of Balasor and Hughli were united. On 14 December 1650, James Bridgman was appointed as the chief of the factories. However, in 1653, Bridgman left suddenly and Powle Waldegrave assumed his charge.

On 27 February 1657, the company resolved its holdings into four agencies:- Fort St. George, Bantam, Persia, and Hughli. George Gawton was appointed as the Agent of Hughly. Additional three factories in Ballasore, Cassambazar and Pattana were put under the Hughly agency. In 1658, Johnathan Trevisa was appointed as the second to Gawton and was meant to succeed him after the latter's death. On 6 February 1661, the company reduced the Hughly agency under the Fort St. George, and then agent Trevisa was made the "Chief of Factories in the Bay of Bengal". On 24 November 1681, William Hedges was appointed as the "Agent and Governor for the affairs of the East India Company in the Bay of Bengal". On 21 December 1684, William Gyfford who was the President and Governor of Fort St. George was given the additional charge of Bengal due to increasing mismanagement. John Beard was appointed as the "Agent and Chief in the Bay of Bengal" and become the subordinate to Gifford.

Chief of the factories of Balasore and Hughli
Name	Portrait	Took Office	Left Office	Remarks
James Bridgman		14 December 1650	1653
Powle Waldegrave		1653	1657
Agent of Hughly Agency
George Gawton		27 February 1657	11 September 1658
John Trevisa		11 September 1658	6 February 1661
Chief of Factories in the Bay of Bengal
John Trevisa		6 February 1661	31 January 1662
William Blake		31 January 1662	24 January 1668
Shem Bridges		24 January 1668	7 December 1669
Henry Powell		7 December 1669	?
Walter Clavell		~June 1672	7 August 1677	Died in office
Mathias Vincent		7 September 1677	~July 1682 (position superseded)	Deposed in July 1682
Agent and Governor for the affairs of the East India Company in the Bay of Bengal
Sir William Hedges		24 November 1681	~ August 1684	Deposed in August 1864
Agent and Chief in the Bay of Bengal
John Beard		21 December 1863	28 August 1865	Died in office
Job Charnock		~ April 1686	10 January 1693	Died in office
Francis Ellis		10 January 1693	January 1694
Charles Eyre		25 January 1694	1 February 1699	Left for England in 1699
John Beard		1 February 1699	20 December 1699 (position superseded)	Second to Eyre

On 20 December 1699, the Court of Directors (London East India Company) declared Bengal a Presidency, and then Agent Charles Eyre was made the " President and Governor of Fort William, in Bengal". The President or Chief in the Bay of Bengal for the English East India Company was Sir Edward Littleton in whose commission and instructions, dated 12 January 1698, it was also stated that power had been obtained from his Majesty to constitute him the "Minister or Consul for the English Nation" with all powers requisite thereunto.” Littleton was later deposed by the Court of Directors in 1703.

The union of the two East India Companies took place on 23 July 1702. For united trade in Bengal, a Council was appointed, of which Nathaniel Halsey and Robert Hedges were to take chair each in their week alternatively as per the dispatch from United Company on 26 February 1702. In a dispatch of 12 February 1704, it was ordered that if Beard shall die, no one will be appointed as President to succeed him. After the departure of John Beard to Madras, Ralph Sheldon assumed the position of Chief of Council, and his appointment was confirmed in a dispatch of 7 February 1706.

President and Governor of Fort William, in Bengal
Name	Portrait	Took Office	Left Office	Remarks
Sir Charles Eyre		20 December 1699	7 January 1701	Left on account of health issues
John Beard		7 January 1701	7 July 1705	Died in Office

On 30 December 1709, Anthony Weldon was appointed as the "President in the Bay, and Governor and Commander-in-Chief for Fort William, in Bengal" for the United East India Company. His appointment was later revoked and was supposed to be succeeded by Sheldon. Since Sheldon had died by the time dispatch arrived in Bengal, John Russell was ordered to succeed as the Governor. By a letter of 8 May 1771, the Court appointed Warren Hastings to be Governor of Bengal. By Act of Parliament 13 Geo. III., cap. 63, the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal will headed by a Governor-General, and Hastings was appointed as the first Governor-General. He assumed the office on 20 October 1774.

President in the Bay, and Governor and Commander-in-Chief for Fort William, in Bengal
#	Name	Portrait	Took Office	Left Office	Remarks	Appointee
1	Anthony Weldon		30 December 1709	4 March 1711	Appointment revoked by the Court of Directors Resigned on March 1711	East India Company
2	John Rusell		4 March 1711	3 December 1713	Dismissed by the Court
3	Robert Hedges		3 December 1713	28 December 1717	died in office
4	Samuel Feake		12 January 1718	17 January 1723	Left for England due to illness
5	John Deane		17 January 1723	30 January 1726	Returned to England
6	Henry Frankland		30 January 1726	25 February 1732	Returned to Europe
7	John Stackhouse		25 February 1732	29 January 1739	Resigned
8	Thomas Broddyll		29 January 1739	4 Feb 1746	Left for England
9	John Forster		4 Feb 1746	March 1748	Died in office
10	William Barewell		18 April 1748	1749	Dismissed by the Court
11	Adam Dawson		17 July 1749	1752	Dismissed by the Court
12	William Fycthe		5 July 1752	8 August 1752	Died in Office
13	Roger Drake		8 August 1752	20 June 1758	Deposed by the Court
14	Col. Robert Clive		27 June 1758	23 January 1760	Resigned
15	John Zephaniah Holwell		28 January 1760	27 July 1760	Handed over to Vansittart who was appointed on 23 November 1759 to the office
16	Henry Vansittart		27 July 1760	26 November 1764	Returned to England
17	John Spencer		3 December 1764	3 May 1765
18	The Lord Clive		3 May 1765	20 January 1767	Returned to England
19	Harry Verelst		29 January 1767	24 December 1769	Retired from the service
20	John Cartier		26 December 1769	13 April 1772
21	Warren Hastings		13 April 1772	20 October 1773 (office superseded)	Appointed as the Governor-General of Fort William in Bengal in 1773

Portrait	Name	Term	Appointer
Before 1773 the Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William was named as Governor of Bengal (1757–1772).
Governors General of the Presidency of Fort William (1773–1833)
	Warren Hastings	20 October 1773	8 February 1785	East India Company (1773–1858)
	John Macpherson (acting)	8 February 1785	12 September 1786
	The Marquess Cornwallis	12 September 1786	28 October 1793
	John Shore	28 October 1793	18 March 1798
	Alured Clarke (acting)	18 March 1798	18 May 1798
	The Earl of Mornington	18 May 1798	30 July 1805
	The Marquess Cornwallis	30 July 1805	5 October 1805
	Sir George Barlow, Bt (acting)	10 October 1805	31 July 1807
	The Lord Minto	31 July 1807	4 October 1813
	The Marquess of Hastings	4 October 1813	9 January 1823
	John Adam (acting)	9 January 1823	1 August 1823
	The Lord Amherst	1 August 1823	13 March 1828
	William Butterworth Bayley (acting)	13 March 1828	4 July 1828
Governors-General of India (1834–1858)
	Lord William Bentinck	4 July 1828	20 March 1835	East India Company (1773–1858)
	Charles Metcalfe, Bt (acting)	20 March 1835	4 March 1836
	The Lord Auckland	4 March 1836	15 November 1834

By an Act of 1833 (3 & 4 William IV. , cap. lxxxv., Section lvi . ), it was enacted " that the Executive Government of each of the several Presidencies of Fort William in Bengal, Fort St. George, Bombay, and Agra shall be administered by a Governor and three Councilors, to be styled the Governor-in-Council of the said Presidencies of Fort William in Bengal , Fort St. George, Bombay, and Agra respectively, and that the Governor General of India for the time being shall be Governor of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal. From this time the Governors General of India held also the separate office of Governor of Bengal, until the year 1854. Under the Charter Act 1853 the Governor General of India was relieved of his concurrent duties as Governor of Bengal and empowered to appoint a lieutenant-governor from 1854.

Governors of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal (ex-officio Governor-General of India, 1833-1857)
#	Name (birth–death)	Portrait	Took office	Left office	Appointee
1	The Lord William Bentick (1774–1839)		15 November 1834 (1833)	20 March 1835	East India Company
-	Sir Charles Metcalfe, Bt, ICS[3] (acting) (1785–1846)		20 March 1835	4 March 1836
2	The Lord Auckland (1784–1849)		4 March 1836	28 February 1842
3	The Lord Ellenborough (1790–1871)		28 February 1842	June 1844
-	William Wilberforce Bird, ICS[3] (acting) (1784–1857)		June 1844	23 July 1844
4	Sir Henry Hardinge (1785–1856)		23 July 1844	12 January 1848
5	The Earl of Dalhousie (1812–1860)		12 January 1848	1 May 1854 (28 February 1856)

Under the Charter Act 1853 the Governor General of India was relieved of his concurrent duties as Governor of Bengal and a separate Governor of Bengal shall be appointed. Until then a Lieutenant Governor will be appointed. F. J. Halliday became the first lieutenant governor of the Bengal presidency. William Duke served as the last lieutenant governor after which the office was superseded by the Governor of Bengal province in 1912.

Lieutenant Governors of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal
#	Name	Portrait	Took office	Left office	Appointee
1	Frederick James Halliday		1854	1859	The Marquess of Dalhousie
2	John Peter Grant		1859	1862	The Earl Canning
3	Cecil Beadon		1862	1866
4	William Grey		1867	1870	Sir John Lawrence, Bt
5	George Campbell		1870	1874	The Earl of Mayo
6	Sir Richard Temple Hart		1874	1877	The Lord Northbrook
7	Sir Ashley Eden		1877	1882
8	Sir Augustus Rivers Thompson		1882	1887	The Marquess of Ripon
9	Sir Steuart Colvin Bayley		1887	1890	The Earl of Dufferin
10	Sir Charles Alfred Elliott		1890	1893	The Marquess of Lansdowne
11	Sir Anthony Patrick MacDonnell		1893	1895
12	Sir Alexander Mackenzie		1895	1897	The Earl of Elgin
13	Sir Charles Cecil Stevens		1897	1898
14	Sir John Woodburn		1898	1902
15	James Dewar Bourdillon		1902	1903	The Lord Curzon of Kedleston
16	Sir Andrew Henderson Leith Fraser		1903	1906
17	Francis Slacke		1906	1908	The Earl of Minto
18	Sir Edward Norman Baker		1908	1911
19	Frederick William Duke		1911	1912	The Lord Hardinge of Penshurst

#	Name	Portrait	Entered office	Left office
1	Sir Charles Stuart Bayley		1912	1915
2	Sir Edward Albert Gait		1915	1918
3	Sir Edward Vere Levinge		1918	1918
4	Sir Edward Albert Gait		1918	1919
1919	1920

#	Name	Portrait	Entered office	Left office
5	Satyendra Prasanna Sinha		1920	1921
6	Havilland Le Mesurier		1921	1922
7	Sir Henry Wheeler		1922	1927
8	Hugh Lansdown Stephenson		1927	1932
9	Sir James David Sifton		1932	1936

#	Name	Portrait	Entered office	Left office
Before Independence
9	Sir James David Sifton		1 April 1936	10 March 1937
10	Sir Maurice Garnier Hallett		11 March 1937	15 May 1938
11	Sir Thomas Alexander Stewart		15 May 1938	16 September 1938
12	Sir Maurice Garnier Hallett		17 September 1938	5 August 1939
13	Sir Thomas Alexander Stewart		6 August 1939	2 February 1943
14	Sir Thomas George Rutherford		3 February 1943	6 September 1943
15	Sir Francis Mudie		7 September 1943	23 April 1944
16	Sir Thomas George Rutherford		24 April 1944	12 May 1946
17	Sir Hugh Dow		13 May 1946	14 August 1947
After Independence
18	Jairamdas Daulatram		15 August 1947	11 January 1948
19	Madhav Shrihari Aney		12 January 1948	14 June 1952
20	R. R. Diwakar		15 June 1952	5 July 1957
21	Zakir Husain		6 July 1957	11 May 1962
22	M. A. Ayyangar		12 May 1962	6 December 1967
23	Nityanand Kanungo		7 December 1967	20 January 1971
24	Justice U.N. Sinha		21 January 1971	31 January 1971
25	Dev Kant Baruah		1 February 1971	4 February 1973
26	Ramchandra Dhondiba Bhandare		4 February 1973	15 June 1976
27	Jagannath Kaushal		16 June 1976	31 January 1979
28	Justice K.B.N. Singh		31 January 1979	19 September 1979
29	Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai		20 September 1979	15 March 1985
30	P. Venkatasubbaiah		15 March 1985	25 February 1988
31	Govind Narain Singh		26 February 1988	24 January 1989
32	Justice Dipak Kumar Sen		24 January 1989	28 January 1989
33	R.D. Pradhan		29 January 1989	2 February 1989
34	Jagannath Pahadia		3 March 1989	2 February 1990
35	Justice G.G. Sohoni		2 February 1990	16 February 1990
36	Mohammad Saleem		16 February 1990	13 February 1991
37	B. Satya Narayan Reddy		14 February 1991	18 March 1991
38	Mohammad Shafi Qureshi		19 March 1991	13 August 1993
39	Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai		14 August 1993	26 April 1998
40	Sunder Singh Bhandari		27 April 1998	15 March 1999
41	Justice B.M. Lall		15 March 1999	5 October 1999
42	Suraj Bhan		6 October 1999	22 November 1999
43	V. C. Pande		23 November 1999	15 November 2000

No.	Portrait	Name (born – died)	Tenure in office
From	To
44		Prabhat Kumar प्रभात कुमार IAS (Retd.) (born 1940)	15 November 2000	3 February 2002
45		Vinod Chandra Pande विनोद चंद्र पांडे IAS (Retd.) (1932–2005) (Additional charge)	4 February 2002	14 July 2002
46		Justice (Retd.) M. Rama Jois एम. राम जोइस (1931–2021)	15 July 2002	11 June 2003
47		Ved Marwah वेद मारवाह IPS (Retd.) (1934–2020)	12 June 2003	9 December 2004
48		Syed Sibtey Razi सैयद सिब्ते रज़ी (1939–2022)	10 December 2004	25 July 2009
49		K. Sankaranarayanan के. शंकरनारायणन (1932–2022)	26 July 2009	21 January 2010
50		M. O. H. Farook एम. ओ. एच. फारूक (1937–2012)	22 January 2010	3 September 2011
51		Syed Ahmed सैयद अहमद (1943–2015)	4 September 2011	17 May 2015
52		Droupadi Murmu द्रौपदी मुर्मू (born 1958)	18 May 2015	13 July 2021
53		Ramesh Bais रमेश बैस (born 1947)	14 July 2021	17 February 2023
54		C. P. Radhakrishnan सी. पी. राधाकृष्णन (born 1957)	18 February 2023	30 July 2024
55		Santosh Gangwar संतोष गंगवार (born 1948)	31 July 2024	Incumbent

• Governor (India)
• Government of India
• Government of Jharkhand
• Ranchi University

• http://rajbhavanjharkhand.nic.in/