List of chief justices of the Himachal Pradesh High Court

The Himachal Pradesh High Court is the High Court of the state of Himachal Pradesh.

Himachal Pradesh High Court
Established	1971
Jurisdiction	Himachal Pradesh
Location	Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
Composition method	Presidential appointment with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state.
Authorised by	Constitution of India
Appeals to	Supreme Court of India
Judge term length	Mandatory Retirement by age of 62
Number of positions	13
Website	hphighcourt.nic.in
Chief Justice
Currently	Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia
Since	29 December 2024

Chief Justice

On 14 October 2021, Justice Mohammad Rafiq took oath as the chief justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court.^[1]

List of Chief Justices

Himachal Pradesh High Court was established on 25 January 1971 under State of Himachal Pradesh Act, 1970 and had 29 Chief Justices till date excluding Acting Chief Justices and Current Chief Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia who is serving from 29 December 2024.

Sr. No.	Name	Date of Appointment	Date of Retirement	Tenure	Remarks
1	Mirza Hameedullah Beg	25 January 1971	9 December 1971	319 days	Later served as 15th Chief Justice of India
2	Raghunandan Swarup Pathak	18 March 1972	19 February 1978	5 years, 339 days	Later served as 18th Chief Justice of India Then later elected to International Court of Justice
3	Tryambkalal Umedchand Mehta	25 July 1978	11 December 1979	1 year, 140 days
4	Vyas Dev Misra	12 December 1979	30 September 1983	3 years, 293 days
5	Prabodh Dinkarrao Desai	23 December 1983	13 November 1988	4 years, 327 days	Transferred to Calcutta as CJ Later transferred to Bombay as CJ
6	Narendra Mohan Kasliwal	29 March 1989	5 October 1989	191 days	Elevated to Supreme Court of India
7	Perumbulavil Chakkala Valappil Balakrishna Menon	6 November 1989	14 January 1991	1 year, 70 days
8	Leila Seth	5 August 1991	19 October 1992	1 year, 76 days	First Female CJ of Himachal Pradesh
9	Shashi Kant Seth	22 June 1993	27 August 1993	67 days
10	Viswanathan Ratnam	29 January 1994	31 July 1994	184 days
11	Gulab Chand Gupta	17 September 1994	28 February 1995	165 days
12	Sailendu Nath Phukan	1 March 1995	1 August 1996	1 year, 154 days	Transferred to Odisha as CJ Later elevated to Supreme Court of India
13	Madhavachari Srinivasan	12 August 1996	24 September 1997	1 year, 44 days	Elevated to Supreme Court of India
14	Makani Narayana Rao	6 November 1997	21 April 1998	167 days
15	Doraiswamy Raju	1 July 1998	27 January 2000	1 year, 211 days	Elevated to Supreme Court of India
16	Chunilal Karsandas Thakker	5 May 2000	30 December 2001	1 year, 240 days	Transferred to Bombay as CJ Later elevated to Supreme Court of India
17	Wungazan Awungshi Shishak	24 January 2002	31 December 2002	342 days
18	Vinod Kumar Gupta	8 March 2003	1 February 2008	4 years, 331 days	Transferred to Uttarakhand as CJ
19	Jagadish Bhalla	2 February 2008	9 August 2009	1 year, 189 days	Transferred to Rajasthan as CJ
20	Kurian Joseph	8 February 2010	6 March 2013	3 years, 27 days	Elevated to Supreme Court of India
21	Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar	4 April 2013	23 November 2013	234 days	Transferred to Madhya Pradesh as CJ Later elevated to Supreme Court of India
22	Mansoor Ahmad Mir	18 June 2014	24 April 2017	2 years, 311 days
23	Surya Kant[2]	5 October 2018	23 May 2019	231 days	Elevated to Supreme Court of India
24	V. Ramasubramanian	22 June 2019	22 September 2019	93 days	Elevated to Supreme Court of India
25	Lingappa Narayana Swamy	6 October 2019	29 June 2021	1 year, 267 days
26	Mohammad Rafiq	14 October 2021	20 May 2022	130 days
27	Amjad Ahtesham Sayed	23 June 2022	20 January 2023	212 days
28	Mamidanna Satyratna Ramachandra Rao	30 May 2023	24 September 2024	1 year, 118 days	Transferred to Jharkhand as CJ
29	Rajiv Shakdher	25 September 2024	18 October 2024	24 days