Former Supreme Court judge Justice S Abdul Nazeer, who was part of the Constitution bench that upheld the archaeological report on Ayodhya, has been appointed as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh. He will replace the present Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan. Justice Nazeer retired this year on January 4. Four BJP leaders are also among six new faces appointed as governors on Sunday, February 12. 

Born on January 5, 1958, Justice Nazeer enrolled as an advocate in 1983 and practised in the Karnataka High Court, where he was appointed as an additional judge in 2003 and as a permanent judge in 2004. In 2017, he was elevated to the Supreme Court. He has been involved in several key judgements such as the Ayodhya verdict which allowed the construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site of Babri Masjid, the KS Puttaswamy case in which a nine-judge bench upheld the right to privacy as a fundamental right, and also the demonetisation case where an SC Constitution bench upheld the validity of the decision. 

BJP leaders Lakshman Prasad Acharya, CP Radhakrishnan, Shiv Pratap Shukla and Gulab Chand Kataria, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan, were nominated as governors in Sikkim, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Assam respectively. Koshyari was replaced by Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais, while Mathur's place was given to the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh Brig BD Mishra (retd). Retired Supreme Court judge Nazeer was appointed as Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Lt Gen KT Parnaik (retd) as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh.

With PTI inputs