Can a new government sack governors appointed by the previous govt?

As governors continue to deny they have resigned, except for UP governor BL Joshi, who put in his papers today, home minister Rajnath Singh says, "If I were in their place, I would have resigned."

While on governor's here is an interesting judgment in the BL Singhal vs the Union of India case. Singhal, the writ petitioner had filed a public interest litigation in the wake of the removal of the Governors of the States of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Goa in 2004 when the UPA government came to power.

The judgement says and we quote: 

"A Governor cannot be removed on the ground that he is out of sync with the policies and ideologies of the Union Government or the party in power at the Centre.

"Nor can he be removed on the ground that the Union Government has lost confidence in him.

"It follows therefore that change in government at Centre is not a ground for removal of Governors holding office to make way for others favoured by the new government. (iv) As there is no need to assign reasons, any removal as a consequence of withdrawal of the pleasure will be assumed to be valid and will be open to only a limited judicial review.

"If the aggrieved person is able to demonstrate prima facie that his removal was either arbitrary, malafide, capricious or whimsical, the court will call upon the Union Government to disclose to the court, the material upon which the President had taken the decision to withdraw the pleasure. If the Union Government does not disclose any reason, or if the reasons disclosed are found to be irrelevant, arbitrary, whimsical, or malafide, the court will interfere. However, the court will not interfere merely on the ground that a different view is possible or that the material or reasons are insufficient."