Himachal Pradesh High Court

Himachal Pradesh High Court
हिमाचल प्रदेश उच्च न्यायालय
Entrance Gate of Himachal High Court building
Interactive map of Himachal Pradesh High Court
हिमाचल प्रदेश उच्च न्यायालय
31°06′00″N 77°10′30″E / 31.100°N 77.175°E / 31.100; 77.175
Established25 January 1971 (1971-01-25)
JurisdictionHimachal Pradesh
LocationBemloi, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
Coordinates31°06′00″N 77°10′30″E / 31.100°N 77.175°E / 31.100; 77.175
Composition methodPresidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state.
Authorised byConstitution of India
Judge term lengthMandatory Retirement by age of 62
Number of positions17
Websitehighcourt.hp.gov.in
Chief Justice
CurrentlyGurmeet Singh Sandhawalia
Since29 December 2024
Lead position ends31 October 2027

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 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.[3] On 29 December 2024, Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia took oath as chief justice of the High Court.[4]

List of Chief Justices

# Portrait Name From To
1 M. H. Beg Mirza Hameedullah Beg 25 January 1971 9 December 1971
2 R. S. Pathak Raghunandan Swarup Pathak 18 March 1972 19 February 1978
3 Tryambkalal Umedchand Mehta 20 February 1978 11 December 1979
4 Vyas Dev 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 Perumbulavil Chakkala Valappil Balakrishna 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 Gulab Chand 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 Chunilal Karsandas Thakker 5 May 2000 30 December 2001
17 Wungazan Awungshi 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 Ajay Manikrao 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 Mamidanna Satyratna 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

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.[5]

Name Image Appointed as CJ in HC of Date of appointment Date of retirement[a] Tenure
As Judge As Chief Justice As Chief Justice As Judge[b]
Bhawani Singh Jammu & Kashmir, transferred to Madhya Pradesh then to Gujarat 16 December 1988 16 June 1997 28 March 2006 8 years, 286 days 17 years, 103 days
Devinder Gupta Andhra Pradesh 25 June 1990 10 March 2003 4 April 2005 2 years, 26 days 14 years, 284 days
Deepak Gupta Tripura, transferred to Chhattisgarh 4 October 2004 23 March 2013 16 February 2017[‡] 3 years, 331 days 12 years, 136 days
Abhilasha Kumari Manipur 2 December 2005 9 February 2018 23 February 2018 15 days 12 years, 84 days
Sanjay Karol Tripura, transferred to Patna 8 March 2007 14 November 2018 5 February 2023[‡] 4 years, 84 days 15 years, 335 days
Tarlok Singh Chauhan Jharkhand 23 February 2014 23 July 2025 8 January 2026 170 days 11 years, 320 days

Judges appointed as Acting Chief Justice

Name Appointed as ACJ in HC of Date of appointment as Judge Period as Acting Chief Justice Date of retirement[a] Tenure as ACJ Tenure as Judge Remarks Ref..
Dhruva Bihari Lal Himachal Pradesh 11 March 1971 10 Dec 1971 – 17 Mar 1972 3 April 1979 99 days 8 years, 24 days -- [6]
Hira Singh Thakur Himachal Pradesh 5 January 1979 1 Oct 1983 – 22 Dec 1983 10 August 1986 83 days 7 years, 218 days [7]
Bhawani Singh Himachal Pradesh 16 December 1988 20 Oct 1992 – 21 Jun 1993 28 March 2006 245 days 17 years, 103 days [8]
28 Aug 1993 – 28 Jan 1994 154 days [9]
1 Aug 1994 – 16 Sep 1994 47 days
Devinder Gupta Delhi 25 June 1990 3 Feb 1999 – 24 May 1999 4 April 2005 111 days 14 years, 284 days [10]
15 Mar 2000 – 9 May 2000 56 days
19 Oct 2001 – 25 Nov 2001 38 days
2 Oct 2002 – 4 Mar 2003 154 days Elevated as CJ of undivided Andhra Pradesh
Kamlesh Sharma Himachal Pradesh 2 Aug 1996 – 11 Aug 1996 30 August 2003 10 days 13 years, 67 days --
25 Sep 1997 – 6 Nov 1997 43 days
22 Apr 1998 – 30 Jun 1998 70 days
29 Jan 2000 – 4 May 2000 97 days
31 Dec 2001 – 24 Jan 2002 25 days
1 Jan 2003 – 7 Mar 2003 66 days
Dev Darshan Sud Himachal Pradesh 27 November 2006 24 Nov 2013 – 26 Nov 2013 18 February 2014 3 days 7 years, 84 days
Sanjay Karol Himachal Pradesh 8 March 2007 25 Apr 2017 – 5 Oct 2018 5 February 2023[‡] 1 year, 164 days 15 years, 335 days --
Rajeev Sharma Uttarakhand 3 April 2007 7 Aug 2018 – 2 Nov 2018 7 October 2020 87 days 13 years, 188 days Transferred to Punjab & Haryana [11]
Punjab & Haryana 23 Sep 2019 – 5 Oct 2019 13 days -- [12]
Dharam Chand Chaudhary Himachal Pradesh 21 January 2012 24 May 2019 – 21 Jun 2019 12 March 2020 29 days 8 years, 52 days
23 Sep 2019 – 5 Oct 2019 13 days
T. S. Chauhan Himachal Pradesh 23 February 2014 20 Apr 2023 – 29 May 2023 8 January 2026 40 days 11 years, 320 days
19 Oct 2024 – 28 Dec 2024 71 days
  1. 1 2 this includes date of resignation, death and elevation to supreme court
  2. ↑ also includes tenure as Chief Justice


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.

# Name of the Judge Image Date of Appointment Date of Retirement Tenure Immediately preceding office
In Parent High Court In Supreme Court In High Court(s) In Supreme Court Total tenure[a]
1 Lokeshwar Singh Panta 20 August 1991 3 February 2006 23 September 2009 14 years, 167 days 3 years, 233 days 18 years, 35 days Judge of Himachal Pradesh HC
2 Deepak Gupta 4 October 2004 17 February 2017 6 May 2020 12 years, 136 days 3 years, 80 days 15 years, 216 days 10th CJ of Chhattisgarh HC
3 Sanjay Karol 8 March 2007 6 February 2023 22 August 2026 15 years, 335 days 3 years, 198 days 19 years, 168 days 43rd CJ of Patna HC
  1. ↑ Includes both tenure as High Court Judge as well as Supreme Court Judge

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Jurisdiction and Seats of Indian High Courts". EBC India. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  2. ↑ "Judge strength in High Courts increased". PIB Press Release. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  3. ↑ "CJ & Sitting Judges, HP High Court".
  4. ↑ "Centre clears appointment of Justice GS Sandhawalia as Himachal Pradesh High Court Chief Justice". Bar & Bench. 23 December 2024. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
  5. ↑ "High Court of Himachal Pradesh". highcourt.hp.gov.in. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  6. ↑ "Appointment of D. B. Lal as Acting chief justice" (PDF).
  7. ↑ "Judgement mentioning H. S. Thakur as Acting chief justice".
  8. ↑ "R.K Mahajan v. Chief Justice Of H.P High Court And Others, Supreme Court Of India, Judgment, Law, casemine.com". www.casemine.com. Retrieved 10 April 2026.
  9. ↑ "Read more on Bhagwan Dass Vs. State of H.P. & Others on 21 October, 1993 - Legitquest. Find Court Judgments and Legal Cases in India". www.legitquest.com. Retrieved 10 April 2026.
  10. ↑ "Justice Devinder Gupta | Welcome To Delhi High Court". www.delhihighcourt.nic.in. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
  11. ↑ "Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajiv Sharma, Judge | High Court of Uttarakhand | India". Retrieved 14 October 2025.
  12. ↑ "Order of appointment of Justice Rajeev Sharma as Acting Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court" (PDF).
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