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 and Judges
Himachal Pradesh High Court is permitted to have a maximum of 17 judges of which 13 may be permanently appointed and 4 may be additionally appointed. Currently, it has 13 judges. On 29 December 2024, Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia took oath as chief justice of the High Court.
List of Chief Justices #PortraitNameFromTo1Mirza Hameedullah Beg25 January 19719 December 19712Raghunandan Swarup Pathak18 March 197219 February 19783Tryambkalal Umedchand Mehta20 February 197811 December 19794Vyas Dev Misra12 December 197930 September 19835Prabodh Dinkarrao Desai23 December 198313 November 19886Narendra Mohan Kasliwal29 March 19895 October 19897Perumbulavil Chakkala Valappil Balakrishna Menon6 November 198914 January 19918Leila Seth5 August 199120 October 19929Shashi Kant Seth22 June 199328 August 199310Viswanathan Ratnam29 January 19941 August 199411Gulab Chand Gupta17 September 19941 March 199512Sailendu Nath Phukan1 March 19951 August 199613Madhavachari Srinivasan1 August 199624 September 199714Makani Narayana Rao6 November 199722 April 199815Doraiswamy Raju1 July 199828 January 200016Chunilal Karsandas Thakker5 May 200030 December 200117Wungazan Awungshi Shishak24 January 20021 January 200318Vinod Kumar Gupta8 March 20032 February 200819Jagadish Bhalla2 February 20087 August 200920Kurian Joseph8 February 20106 March 201321Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar5 April 201324 November 201322Mansoor Ahmad Mir18 June 201424 April 201723Surya Kant5 October 201823 May 201924V. Ramasubramanian22 June 201922 September 201925Lingappa Narayana Swamy6 October 201930 June 202126Mohammad Rafiq14 October 202124 May 202227Amjad Ahtesham Sayed23 June 202220 January 202328Mamidanna Satyratna Ramachandra Rao30 May 202324 September 202429Rajiv Shakdher25 September 202418 October 202430Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia29 December 2024Incumbent
Judges elevated as Chief Justices
This sections contains list of only those judges elevated as chief justices whose parent high court is Himachal Pradesh. This includes those judges who, at the time of appointment as chief justice, may not be serving in Himachal Pradesh High Court but this list does not include judges who at the time of appointment as chief justice were serving in Himachal Pradesh High Court but does not have Himachal Pradesh as their Parent High Court.
Colour Key
Symbol Key Elevated to Supreme Court of India Resigned Died in office NameImageAppointed as CJ in HC ofDate of appointmentDate of retirementTenureAs JudgeAs Chief JusticeAs Chief JusticeAs JudgeBhawani SinghJammu & Kashmir, transferred to Madhya Pradesh then to GujaratDevinder GuptaAndhra PradeshDeepak GuptaTripura, transferred to ChhattisgarhAbhilasha KumariManipurSanjay KarolTripura, transferred to PatnaTarlok Singh ChauhanJharkhand
Judges appointed as Acting Chief Justice NameAppointed as ACJ in HC ofDate of appointment as JudgePeriod as Acting Chief JusticeDate of retirementTenure as ACJTenure as JudgeRemarksRef..Dhruva Bihari LalHimachal Pradesh --Hira Singh ThakurHimachal PradeshBhawani SinghHimachal PradeshDevinder GuptaDelhiElevated as CJ of undivided Andhra PradeshKamlesh SharmaHimachal Pradesh --Dev Darshan SudHimachal PradeshSanjay KarolHimachal Pradesh --Rajeev SharmaUttarakhandTransferred to Punjab & HaryanaPunjab & Haryana --Dharam Chand ChaudharyHimachal PradeshT. S. ChauhanHimachal Pradesh
Judges elevated to Supreme Court This section includes the list of only those judges whose parent high court was Himachal Pradesh. This includes those judges who, at the time of elevation to Supreme Court of India, may not be serving in Himachal Pradesh High Court but this list does not include judges who at the time of elevation were serving in Himachal Pradesh High Court but does not have Himachal Pradesh as their Parent High Court.
Colour Key
Key Resigned Died in office #Name of the JudgeImageDate of AppointmentDate of RetirementTenureImmediately preceding officeIn Parent High CourtIn Supreme CourtIn High Court(s)In Supreme CourtTotal tenure1Lokeshwar Singh PantaJudge of Himachal Pradesh HC2Deepak Gupta10th CJ of Chhattisgarh HC3Sanjay Karol43rd CJ of Patna HC
See also High courts of India List of chief justices of the Himachal Pradesh High Court
References
External links The Himachal Pradesh High Court official website