# Himachal Pradesh High Court

The Himachal Pradesh High Court is the High Court of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
Himachal Pradesh was born as a result of integration of twenty six Province and four Punjab hill States into a Centrally Administered Area on 15 April 1948. The Central Government promulgated the Himachal Pradesh (Courts) Order, 1948 on 15 August 1948. As per Paragraph 3 of this Order, the Court of Judicial Commissioner was established for Himachal Pradesh and the Court was housed at "Harvingtan" (Kelston area, Bharari, Shimla). It was vested with the powers of a High Court under the Judicial Commissioner's Court Act, 1950. The Court of Judicial commissioner started functioning on 15 August 1948. The Punjab High Court rules and orders with suitable amendments were made applicable.
In the year 1966, the Delhi High Court Act was enacted by the Government of India and w.e.f. 1 May 1967, the Central Government of India extended jurisdiction of the said Act to the Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh, replacing the Court of Judicial Commissioner by the Himachal Bench of Delhi High Court, at Shimla and it started functioning in old High Court building known as "Revenswood". On 18 December 1970, the State of Himachal Pradesh Act was passed by Parliament and the new state came into being on 25 January 1971 and established its own High Court with headquarters at "Revenswood" Shimla, having one Hon'ble Chief Justice and two Hon'ble Judges.
The seat of the court is Shimla, the administrative capital of the state. The court has a sanctioned judge strength of 13 including the chief justice.

## Chief Justice

On 29 December 2024, Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia took oath as chief justice of the High Court.

## List of Chief Justices

| # | Name | From | To |
| 1 | M.H. Beg | 25 January 1971 | 9 December 1971 |
| 2 | R.S. Pathak | 18 March 1972 | 19 February 1978 |
| 3 | T.U. Mehta | 20 February 1978 | 11 December 1979 |
| 4 | V.D. 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 | P.C.B. 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 | G.C. Gupta | 17 September 1994 | 1 March 1995 |
| 12 | Sailendu Nath Phukan | 1 March 1995 | 1 August 1996 |
| 13 | Madhavachari 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 | C.K. Thakker | 5 May 2000 | 30 December 2001 |
| 17 | W.A. Shishak | 24 January 2002 | 1 January 2003 |
| 18 | Vinod Kumar 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 | A.M. Khanwilkar | 5 April 2013 | 24 November 2013 |
| 22 | Mansoor Ahmad Mir | 18 June 2014 | 24 April 2017 |
| 23 | Surya Kant | 5 October 2018 | 23 May 2019 |
| 24 | V. Ramasubramanian | 22 June 2019 | 22 September 2019 |
| 25 | Lingappa Narayana Swamy | 6 October 2019 | 30 June 2021 |
| 26 | Mohammad Rafiq | 14 October 2021 | 24 May 2022 |
| 27 | Amjad Ahtesham Sayed | 23 June 2022 | 20 January 2023 |
| 28 | M. S. Ramachandra Rao | 30 May 2023 | 24 September 2024 |
| 29 | Rajiv Shakdher | 25 September 2024 | 18 October 2024 |
| 30 | Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia | 29 December 2024 | Incumbent |