List of governors of Bihar

Governor of Bihar
Emblem of Bihar
Incumbent Arif Mohammad Khan since 2 January 2025
Style	His Excellency
Residence	Raj Bhavan, Patna, Bihar
Appointer	President of India
Term length	At the pleasure of the President
Formation	1 April 1936; 88 years ago (1936-04-01)
Website	governor.bih.nic.in

The governor of Bihar is the nominal head of the Indian state of Bihar. The governor is appointed by the president of India. Arif Mohammad Khan is the current governor of Bihar.^[1][2] Former President Zakir Husain and Ram Nath Kovind were two such governors of Bihar who succeeded on to become the president of India.

The governor has:

• 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.

In his ex-officio capacity, the governor of Bihar is chancellor of the universities of Bihar (at present 12) as per the Acts of the Universities.

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

Key

•	indicates that this was an additional charge or acting

#	Name	Portrait	Entered office	Left office	Duration	Home State	Appointed by
Before Independence
1.	Sir James David Sifton		1 April 1936	10 March 1937	343 days	United Kingdom	Freeman Thomas
2.	Sir Maurice Garnier Hallett		11 March 1937	15 May 1938	1 year, 65 days		Victor Hope
–	Sir Thomas Alexander Stewart		15 May 1938	16 September 1938	124 days
(2).	Sir Maurice Garnier Hallett		17 September 1938	5 August 1939	322 days
3.	Sir Thomas Alexander Stewart		6 August 1939	2 February 1943	3 years, 180 days
4.	Sir Thomas George Rutherford		3 February 1943	6 September 1943	215 days
–	Sir Francis Mudie		7 September 1943	23 April 1944	229 days
(4).	Sir Thomas George Rutherford		24 April 1944	12 May 1946	2 years, 18 days		Viscount Wavell
5.	Sir Hugh Dow		13 May 1946	14 August 1947	1 year, 93 days
After Independence
1.	Jairamdas Daulatram		15 August 1947	11 January 1948	149 days	British India	Lord Mountbatten
2.	Madhav Shrihari Aney		12 January 1948	14 June 1952	4 years, 154 days	Maharashtra
3.	R. R. Diwakar		15 June 1952	5 July 1957	5 years, 20 days	Karnataka	Rajendra Prasad
4.	Zakir Husain		6 July 1957	11 May 1962	4 years, 309 days	Andhra Pradesh
5.	M. A. Ayyangar		12 May 1962	6 December 1967	5 years, 208 days
6.	Nityanand Kanungo		7 December 1967	20 January 1971	3 years, 44 days	Odisha	Zakir Husain
–	Justice U.N. Sinha		21 January 1971	31 January 1971	10 days	Not Known	V. V. Giri
7.	Dev Kant Baruah		1 February 1971	4 February 1973	2 years, 3 days	Assam
8.	Ramchandra Dhondiba Bhandare		4 February 1973	15 June 1976	3 years, 132 days	Maharashtra
9.	Jagannath Kaushal		16 June 1976	31 January 1979	2 years, 232 days	Punjab	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
–	Justice K.B.N. Singh		31 January 1979	19 September 1979	231 days	Not Known	Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
10.	Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai		20 September 1979	15 March 1985	5 years, 176 days	Uttar Pradesh
11.	P. Venkatasubbaiah		15 March 1985	25 February 1988	2 years, 347 days	Andhra Pradesh	Zail Singh
12.	Govind Narain Singh		26 February 1988	24 January 1989	334 days	Madhya Pradesh	R. Venkataraman
–	Justice Dipak Kumar Sen		24 January 1989	28 January 1989	4 days	Not Known
13.	R.D. Pradhan		29 January 1989	2 February 1989	4 days	Maharashtra
14.	Jagannath Pahadia		3 March 1989	2 February 1990	336 days	Rajasthan
–	Justice G.G. Sohoni		2 February 1990	16 February 1990	14 days	Not Known
15.	Mohammad Saleem		16 February 1990	13 February 1991	362 days	Uttar Pradesh
–	B. Satya Narayan Reddy		14 February 1991	18 March 1991	32 days	Andhra Pradesh
16.	Mohammad Shafi Qureshi		19 March 1991	13 August 1993	2 years, 147 days	Jammu and Kashmir
(10).	Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai		14 August 1993	26 April 1998	4 years, 255 days	Uttar Pradesh	Shankar Dayal Sharma
17.	Sunder Singh Bhandari		27 April 1998	15 March 1999	322 days	Rajasthan	K. R. Narayan
–	Justice B.M. Lall		15 March 1999	5 October 1999	204 days	Not Known
—	Suraj Bhan		6 October 1999	22 November 1999	47 days	Haryana
18.	V. C. Pande		23 November 1999	12 June 2003	3 years, 201 days	Jammu and Kashmir
19.	M. R. Jois		12 June 2003	31 October 2004	1 year, 141 days	Not Known	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
–	Ved Prakash Marwah		1 November 2004	4 November 2004	3 days
20.	Buta Singh		5 November 2004	29 January 2006	1 year, 85 days	Rajasthan
-	Gopalkrishna Gandhi m		31 January 2006	21 June 2006	141 days	Delhi
21.	R. S. Gavai		22 June 2006	9 July 2008	2 years, 17 days	Maharashtra
22.	R. L. Bhatia		10 July 2008	28 June 2009	353 days	Punjab	Pratibha Patil
23.	Devanand Konwar		29 June 2009	21 March 2013	3 years, 265 days	Assam
24.	D. Y. Patil		22 March 2013	26 November 2014	1 year, 188 days	Maharashtra	Pranab Mukherjee
—	Keshari Nath Tripathi		27 November 2014	15 August 2015	261 days	Uttar Pradesh
25.	Ram Nath Kovind		16 August 2015	20 June 2017[4]	1 year, 308 days
—	Keshari Nath Tripathi		20 June 2017[5]	29 September 2017	101 days
26.	Satya Pal Malik		30 September 2017[6]	23 August 2018	327 days		Ramnath Kovind
27.	Lalji Tandon		23 August 2018[7]	28 July 2019	339 days
28.	Phagu Chauhan		29 July 2019	13 February 2023	3 years, 199 days
29.	Rajendra Viswanath Arlekar		14 February 2023	1 January 2025	1 year, 322 days	Goa	Draupadi Murmu
30.	Arif Mohammad Khan		2 January 2025	Incumbent	75 days	Uttar Pradesh

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• Chief Minister of Bihar
• List of governors of Bihar and Orissa Province

• Bihar governor website