List of female lieutenant governors and administrators in India

Map showing the number of the female Governors, Lieutenant Governors and Administrators served in Indian States and Union Territories

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.

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. Portrait Name

(Birth–Death)

Home state Term of office Union territory Appointed by Ref.
Assumed office Left office Time in office
1 Chandrawati
(1928–2020) 		Haryana 19 February 1990 18 December 1990 302 days Puducherry R. Venkataraman
2 Rajendra Kumari Bajpai
(1925–1999) 		Bihar 2 May 1995 22 April 1998 2 years, 355 days Shanker Dayal Sharma
3 Rajani Rai
(1931–2013) 		Maharashtra 23 April 1998 29 July 2002 4 years, 97 days K. R. Narayanan
4 Kiran Bedi
(1949–) 		Punjab 29 May 2016 16 February 2021 4 years, 263 days Pranab Mukherjee [1]
5 Tamilisai Soundararajan
(additional charge)
(1961–) 		Tamil Nadu 16 February 2021 18 March 2024 3 years, 31 days Ram Nath Kovind [2]

See also

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.