Gujarat Governor to take additional charge of MP

Bhopal: Gujarat Governor O P Kohli will be taking the additional charge of Madhya Pradesh on August 8 - a day after 89-year-old Ram Naresh Yadav demits his office.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Justice Rajendra Menon will administer the oath of office to Kohli, on August 8, a Raj Bhawan official said today.

Yadav, a UPA appointee came under scanner after he was accused of rigging a forest guard recruitment test conducted by the infamous Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal (Vyapam) in 2015.

MP Special Task Force earlier probing Vyapam scam had booked the Governor for fraud and other sections of IPC. Thereafter, he moved the MP High Court for quashing the FIR against him.

In May 2015, the High Court quashed the FIR against him, holding that he enjoyed immunity against prosecution while in office.

"While dealing with the primary question of extent of immunity and privilege extended to the head of a state, during his term of office, which answers the jurisdictional fact, we proceed to quash the impugned FIR against the petitioner [Governor] on that count alone, with liberty to police to proceed in accordance with law after the petitioner ceases to be the Governor," a division bench of the High Court comprising the then Chief Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice Rohit Arya had observed.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, whose name cropped up in the MP recruitment scandal is likely to face a turbulent time after he bows out of his office on completion of his full 5-year term.