Himachal Pradesh High Court Explained

Court Name:Himachal Pradesh High Court
Jurisdiction:Himachal Pradesh
Coordinates:31.1°N 77.175°W
Type:Presidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state.
Authority:Constitution of India
Terms:Mandatory Retirement by age of 62
Positions:17
Website:hphighcourt.nic.in
Chiefjudgetitle:Chief Justice
Chiefjudgename:M. S. Ramachandra Rao
Termstart:30 May 2023

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[1] 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.[2]

Chief Justice

On 2024, Justice Rajiv Shakdher took oath as the chief justice of the court.

List of Chief Justices

S.No.FromToName
125 January 19719 December 1971M.H. Beg
218 March 197219 February 1978R.S. Pathak
320 February 197811 December 1979T.U. Mehta
412 December 197930 September 1983V.D. Misra
523 December 198313 November 1988Prabodh Dinkarrao Desai
629 March 19895 October 1989Narendra Mohan Kasliwal
76 November 198914 January 1991P.C.B. Menon
85 August 199120 October 1992Leila Seth
922 June 199328 August 1993Shashi Kant Seth
1029 January 19941 August 1994Viswanathan Ratnam
1117 September 19941 March 1995G.C. Gupta
121 March 19951 August 1996Sailendu Nath Phukan
131 August 199624 September 1997Madhavachari Srinivasan
146 November 199722 April 1998Makani Narayana Rao
151 July 199828 January 2000Doraiswamy Raju
165 May 200030 December 2001C.K. Thakker
1724 January 20021 January 2003W.A. Shishak
188 March 20032 February 2008Vinod Kumar Gupta
192 February 20087 August 2009Jagadish Bhalla
208 February 20106 March 2013Kurian Joseph
215 April 201324 November 2013A.M. Khanwilkar
2218 June 201424 April 2017Mansoor Ahmad Mir[3]
235 October 201823 May 2019Surya Kant[4]
2422 June 201922 September 2019V. Ramasubramanian
256 October 201930 June 2021Lingappa Narayana Swamy
2614 October 202124 May 2022Mohammad Rafiq
2723 June 202220 January 2023Amjad Ahtesham Sayed
2830 May 2023IncumbentM. S. Ramachandra Rao

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Jurisdiction and Seats of Indian High Courts . 27 November 2013 . EBC India.
  2. News: Judge strength in High Courts increased . 27 November 2013 . PIB Press Release.
  3. News: Governor administers oath to Justice Sanjay Karol as Judge of H P High Court . 25 April 2017 . Shimla Times . 2 April 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160402114650/http://www.shimlatimes.in/2013/11/governor-administers-oath-to-justice.html . dead .
  4. Web site: Surya Kant appointed as CJ of HP high court.