List of female lieutenant governors and administrators in India

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In the Republic of India, a lieutenant governor is the constitutional head of five of the eight union territories. The lieutenant governor is appointed by the President of India for a term of five years, and holds office at the President's pleasure. Since the union territories of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry have a measure of self-government with an elected legislature and council of ministers, the role of the lieutenant governor there is mostly a ceremonial one, akin to that of a state's governor. In Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Ladakh however, the lieutenant governor holds more power, being both the head of state and head of government.

Contents

The other three union territories—Chandigarh; Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu; and Lakshadweep—are governed by an administrator. Unlike the lieutenant governors of other territories, they are usually drawn from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) or Indian Police Service (IPS). Since 1985 the Governor of Punjab has also been the ex-officio Administrator of Chandigarh.

Chandrawati was the first woman to become the lieutenant governor of an Indian union territory, Kiran Bedi is the longest-serving female lieutenant governor with almost 5 years tenure. Tamilisai Soundararajan is the only woman to serve both as a lieutenant governor and governor.

As of 29 June 2024, no woman has served as the administrator of the three union territories. Till date all of the female lieutenant governors have been appointed only to Puducherry.

Lieutenant governors

Key

*  Incumbent lieutenant governor

No.PortraitName

(Birth–Death)

Home stateTerm of officeUnion territoryAppointed byRef.
Assumed officeLeft officeTime in office
1 No image available.svg Chandrawati
(1928–2020)
Haryana 19 February 199018 December 1990302 days Puducherry R. Venkataraman
2 Rajendra Kumari Bajpai Lok Sabha photo.jpg Rajendra Kumari Bajpai
(1925–1999)
Bihar 2 May 199522 April 19982 years, 355 days Shanker Dayal Sharma
3 No image available.svg Rajani Rai
(1931–2013)
Maharashtra 23 April 199829 July 20024 years, 97 days K. R. Narayanan
4 Dr. Kiran Bedi in 2017 (cropped).jpg Kiran Bedi
(1949–)
Punjab 29 May 201616 February 20214 years, 263 days Pranab Mukherjee [1]
5 Tamilisai Soundararajan with her book "Suvai Migu Theneer Thuligal".jpg Tamilisai Soundararajan
(additional charge)
(1961–)
Tamil Nadu 16 February 202118 March 20243 years, 31 days Ram Nath Kovind [2]

See also

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References

  1. "Kiran Bedi assumes charge as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry". The Economic Times. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  2. "Tamilisai Soundararajan sworn in as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry". The Indian Express. 18 February 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2021.