India’s fourteenth President signed the order that ended one of the Constitution’s oldest and most contested provisions. This article covers Ram Nath Kovind’s life and presidency.
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Ram Nath Kovind
A ceremonial office that signed away one of the Constitution’s oldest provisions
1 Oct 1945
Born in Paraunkh, UP
Born to a farming family. Later trains as a lawyer and joins the Delhi bar in 1971.
2017
Becomes 14th President
Wins nearly two-thirds of the vote. Second Dalit President, and the first affiliated with the BJP.
5–6 Aug 2019
Signs the Article 370 orders
Two presidential orders make Article 370 inoperative, ending Jammu and Kashmir‘s special status.
2023
Heads “One Nation, One Election“
After his term ends in 2022, returns to a policy role chairing this simultaneous-elections committee.
The Ceremonial Signature
India’s President rarely acts on personal will. Yet Kovind’s signature was the formal instrument for one of the biggest constitutional changes in decades — because the government’s advice was clear.
Must Know
- Ram Nath Kovind was India’s fourteenth President, serving from 25 July 2017 to 25 July 2022.
- He was the second Dalit to hold the office, after K.R. Narayanan, and the first President affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
- Born on 1 October 1945 in Paraunkh, Uttar Pradesh, to a farming family, he trained as a lawyer and was admitted to the bar in Delhi in 1971.
- He served as a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh from 1994, and as Governor of Bihar from 2015.
- He won nearly two-thirds of the vote in the 2017 presidential election.
Good to Know
- On 5 and 6 August 2019, he signed the presidential orders that made the provisions of Article 370 inoperative, ending Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status.
- The first order, issued 5 August 2019, let the Union act without the Constituent Assembly’s recommendation, which no longer existed. The second, issued 6 August 2019, formally declared Article 370 inoperative.
- He was succeeded as President by Droupadi Murmu in 2022.
- After his term ended, he went on to head the “One Nation, One Election” committee, formed in 2023 to examine simultaneous elections across India.
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Great to Know
- Kovind’s Article 370 orders show that even a largely ceremonial President can be the formal instrument of a landmark constitutional change, so long as the government’s advice is clear and unambiguous.
- Twenty years separate Narayanan’s presidency from Kovind’s, and both were the first Dalit Presidents of their kind — but their most notable acts differ sharply: Narayanan pushed back on Cabinet advice, while Kovind’s central act was executing it swiftly.
- His post-presidency return to a substantive policy role, heading an electoral reform committee, is unusual — most former Indian Presidents step back from active public roles after leaving office.
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