Uncertain fate of Advisors with change of guard at Raj Bhawan

Jammu: After the appointment of Manoj Sinha as new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir the uncertainty looms large over the fate of four advisors to his predecessor G C Mumru.
While there are no well defined rules in the constitution, but by convention the tenure of the Advisors to the constitutional office holder is always co-terminus with the term of the latter if the terms are not separately specified. “With the resignation of G C Murmu as Lieutenant Governor of J&K, the functioning of all four advisors ceased,” an official told The News Now.
“The advisors exercise powers of ministers when the UT is without an elected regime and are part of the administrative council, which is similar to the cabinet of the elected regime,” he added.
GC Murmu had taken oath as the first LG of J&K on October 31, 2019, two months after the abrogation of the special status of the erstwhile state and its bifurcation into two union territories.
Fifteen days after the oath ceremony of Murmu, on Nov 15 the Centre had re-appointed retired IPS officer Farooq Khan and former bureaucrat KK Sharma as advisers to the Lieutenant Governor. Khan and Sharma were earlier advisers to the then Governor Satya Pal Malik but they had to step down upon Malik’s departure from Raj Bhawan.
With an objective to assist the Lieutenant Governor in the effective discharge of his functions, on January 6, the MHA accorded sanction to the appointment of Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar, a retired IPS officer, as the third advisor. Two months later in March, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (Department of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh affairs) appointed Baseer Ahmed Khan as the fourth advisor to G C Murmu.
Earlier, when J&K had made the transition to two separate Union territories on October 31, the term of the five advisers to the then outgoing governor Satya Pal Malik had ended.
The five advisors were Khurshid A Ganai, K Skandan, K K Sharma, retired IPS officers Farooq Khan and K Vijay Kumar. The team of five advisors has been behind the Malik through his eventful tenure that saw the dissolution of the J&K assembly, imposition of governor's rule followed by President's rule and finally, abrogation of Article 370.
Satyapal Malik was appointed Governor of J&K after the then Guv N N Vohra ended on June 28 2018.
Malik was the first career politician to hold J&K governor’s post in the last 51 years after Karan Singh, whose term had ended in 1967.
N N Vohra was appointed J&K governor in 2008 and was reappointed as a governor of J&K by the president of India in 2013.
Vohra ruled J&K directly four times four times during his tenure. He was also given a brief extension keeping in mind the Amarnath Yatra and the dissolution of PDP-BJP coalition government on June 19, 2018.
With Governor's rule imposed in J&K after the dissolution of PDP-BJP coalition government in 2018, IAS officer BB Vyas, retired IPS Vijay Kumar and former chief information commissioner Khurshid Ganai was appointed his advisors.
Earlier, in 2016, a retired IAS officers Parvez Dewan and Khurshid Ganai were appointed his advisors when erstwhile state J&K came under Governor’s rule following the demise of then Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and the stalemate between PDP and BJP over government formation in the state.