| Fazl Ali | |
| Office: | 3rd Governor of Odisha |
| Term Start: | 7 June 1952 |
| Term End: | 9 February 1954 |
| Predecessor: | Asaf Ali |
| Successor: | P. S. Kumaraswamy Raja |
| Office1: | Judge of Supreme Court of India |
| Term Start1: | 26 January 1950 |
| Term End1: | 18 September 1951 |
| Office2: | Chief Justice of Patna High Court |
| Termstart2: | 19 January 1943 |
| Termend2: | 14 October 1946 |
| Birth Date: | 19 September 1886 |
| Parents: | Saiyid Nazir Ali (father) Kubra Begum (mother) |
Sir Saiyid Fazl Ali OBE (19 September 1886 – 22 August 1959) was an Indian judge,[1] the governor of two Indian states (Assam and Odisha), and the head of the States Reorganisation Commission which determined the boundaries of several Indian states in the December 1953.Their commission submitted the report in September 1953 broadly accepting the language as the basis of reorganisation of states.
Fazl belonged to an aristocratic Syed Zamindar family of Bihar state. He studied law and began practicing. Eventually he was raised to the judiciary. Sir Fazl Ali was successively given the title of Khan Sahib first and of Khan Bahadur later. In 1918, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He was knighted in the New Year's Honours list of 1941 and invested with his knighthood on 1 May 1942 by the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow.[2] [3] [4]
India became independent in 1947. Under the new dispensation, Fazl Ali was governor of Odisha from 1952 to 1954 and of Assam from 1956 to 1959. He died while serving as governor of Assam. Whilst in Assam, he made strenuous efforts to bring the disgruntled Naga tribals into the mainstream of society. He opened the first college in the Naga heartland in Mokokchung, which is today known as 'Fazl Ali College' in his honour. The College celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010.
Fazl Ali headed the States Reorganisation Commission that made recommendations about the reorganization of India's states. For his services to India, he was bestowed with the country's second-highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, by the government of India in 1956.