Himachal Pradesh High Court (List of Chief Justices)

Himachal Pradesh High Court (List of Chief Justices)

Himachal Pradesh High Court is the highest court of appeal in the state of Himachal Pradesh. It came to existence when Himachal Pradesh became the 16th state of India on 25 January 1971 with its headquarter at Shimla and having one Chief Justice and two Judges. As of now, the total strength of High Court Judges including Chief Justice is 13.

However, the history of Himachal Pradesh High Court can be traced back to 1948 when Himachal Pradesh was carved out by joining 26 hilly princely states of Shimla and 4 hilly states of Punjab. Then Government of India promulgated Himachal Pradesh (Courts) Order, 1948 on 15 August 1948, by which the Court of Judicial Commissioner was established for Himachal Pradesh. The Court was vested with the powers of a High Court under the Judicial Commissioner's Court Act, 1950 and started functioning on 15 August 1948. The Punjab High Court rules and orders with suitable amendments were made applicable.

In 1966, with the enactment of Delhi High Court Act, the Court of Judicial Commissioner of Himachal Pradesh came under the juridiction of Delhi High Court.

However, when the State of Himachal Pradesh Act was passed by Government of India, the Court of Judicial Commissioner of Himachal Pradesh became the High Court of Himachal Pradesh.

M H Beg was appointed as the first chief justice of High Court of Himachal Pradesh. Later, Leila Seth became the first woman chief justice of High Court of Himachal Pradesh in 1991. As of now, V. Ramasubramanian is the sitting Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court.

List of Chief Justices of Himachal Pradesh High Court

S No	Name	From	To
1	MH Beg	25 January 1971	9 December 1971
2	RS Pathak	18 March 1972	19 February 1978
3	TU Mehta	20 February 1978	11 December 1979
4	VD Misra	12 December 1979	30 September 1983
5	Prabodh Dinkarrao Desai	23 December 1983	13 November 1988
6	Narendra Mohan Kasliwal	29 March 1989	5 October 1989
7	PCB Menon	6 November 1989	14 January 1991
8	Leila Seth	5 August 1991	20 October 1992
9	Shashi Kant Seth	22 June 1993	28 August 1993
10	Viswanathan Ratnam	29 January 1994	1 August 1994
11	GC Gupta	17 September 1994	1 March 1995
12	Sailendu Nath Phukan	1 March 1995	1 August 1996
13	M Srinivasan	1 August 1996	24 September 1997
14	Makani Narayana Rao	6 November 1997	22 April 1998
15	Doraiswamy Raju	1 July 1998	28 January 2000
16	CK Thakker	5 May 2000	30 December 2001
17	WA Shishak	24 January 2002	1 January 2003
18	VK Gupta	8 March 2003	2 February 2008
19	Jagadish Bhalla	2 February 2008	7 August 2009
20	Kurian Joseph	8 February 2010	6 March 2013
21	AM Khanwilkar	5 April 2013	24 November 2013
22	Mansoor Ahmad Mir	18 June 2014	24 April 2017
23	Surya Kant	5 October 2018	24 May 2019
24	V Ramasubramanian	22 June 2019	Incumbent