Which of the following is a qualification required for a person to be…

Concept

The Constitution keeps two different kinds of conditions apart for a high office: the eligibility conditions a person must satisfy before being appointed, and the conditions of the office that attach once the post is held. For a State Governor these sit in consecutive articles of Part VI, Chapter II — Article 157 states who may be appointed, and Article 158 states the terms on which the office is afterwards held.

Applying it here

Article 157 lays down exactly two conditions of eligibility and nothing more: the person must be a citizen of India, and the person must have completed thirty-five years of age. The text adds no requirement of domicile, no requirement of prior membership of a legislature and no requirement of prior judicial service. The qualification the question asks for is therefore citizenship of India together with a completed age of thirty-five years.

Contrast with the other stated conditions

• Membership of Parliament — Article 158(1) provides that a Governor shall not be a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of a State legislature, and that a member so appointed is deemed to have vacated that seat on the date of entering upon office; Article 158(2) separately bars the holding of any other office of profit.

• Domicile in the State with an age of thirty years — the Constitution fixes no domicile requirement at all; appointing a person from outside the State rests on convention. Thirty completed years is the age fixed by Article 84(b) for the Rajya Sabha and by Article 173(b) for a State Legislative Council.

• Service as a judge of a High Court — five years of such service is the experience Article 124(3)(a) counts towards appointment to the Supreme Court, while entry to a High Court bench itself runs through Article 217(2), which asks for ten years of judicial office in India or ten years of practice as an advocate of a High Court.

The constitutional qualification is therefore: a citizen of India who has completed thirty-five years of age (Article 157).