Himachal Pradesh High Court

Himachal Pradesh High Court
Established	1971
Country	Himachal Pradesh
Location	Shimla
Composition method	Presidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state.
Authorized by	Constitution of India
Decisions are appealed to	Supreme Court of India
Judge term length	Till 62 years of age
Number of positions	9
Website	http://hphighcourt.nic.in/
Chief Justice
Currently	A.M. Khanwilkar
Since	2013

The Himachal Pradesh High Court (Hindi: हिमाचल प्रदेश उच्च न्यायालय) is the High Court of the state of Himachal Pradesh.

The Himachal Pradesh was born as a result of integration of tweenty six Shimla and four Punjab hill States into a Centrally Administered Area on April 15, 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 August 15, 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. May 1, 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". The Court of Judicial commissioner stood abolished with effect from 1 May 1967 and instead the jurisdiction of the High Court of Delhi was extended to Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh under the Delhi High Court Act, 1966.

In the year 1966, the Delhi High Court Act was enacted by the Government of India and w.e.f. May 1, 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 9 including the chief justice.

The Chief Justice

Justice Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on 3rd april 2013.

Former Chief Justices

From	To	Name
25 January 1971	9 December 1971	M.H. Beg
18 March 1972	19 February 1978	R.S. Pathak
20 February 1978	11 December 1979	T.U. Mehta
12 December 1979	30 September 1983	V.D. Misra
23 December 1983	13 November 1988	P.D. Desai
29 March 1989	5 October 1989	N.M. Kasliwal
6 November 1989	14 January 1991	P.C.B. Menon
5 August 1991	20 October 1992	Leila Seth
22 June 1993	28 August 1993	S.K. Seth
29 January 1994	1 August 1994	V. Ratnam
17 September 1994	1 March 1995	G.C. Gupta
1 March 1995	1 August 1996	S.N. Phukan
1 August 1996	24 September 1997	M. Srinivasan
6 November 1997	22 April 1998	M.N. Rao
1 July 1998	28 January 2000	D. Raju
5 May 2000	30 December 2001	C.S. Thakker
24 January 2002	1 January 2003	W.A. Shishak
8 March 2003	2 February 2008	V.K. Gupta
2 February 2008	7 August 2009	Jagdish Bhalla
8 February 2010	6 March 2013	Kurian Joseph
	A.M. Khanwilkar

See also

• High Courts of India

References

1. Jurisdiction and Seats of Indian High Courts
2. Judge strength in High Courts increased

 New Chief Justice of H.P. High Court

External links

• The Himachal Pradesh High Court official website