Jharkhand High Court

The Jharkhand High Court is one of the newest high courts in India. It was established in 2000. The court has jurisdiction over Jharkhand state.

Jharkhand High Court झारखंड उच्च न्यायालय
The High Court Building
23.3441°N 85.20°E / 23.3441; 85.20
Established	15 November 2000; 24 years ago (2000-11-15)
Jurisdiction	Jharkhand
Location	Ranchi, Jharkhand
Coordinates	23.3441°N 85.20°E / 23.3441; 85.20
Composition method	Presidential appointment with confirmation of the 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	25
Website	jharkhandhighcourt.nic.in
Chief Justice
Currently	Tarlok Singh Chauhan
Since	24 July 2025

The seat of the court is at Ranchi, the administrative capital of the state. The court has a sanctioned judge strength of 25. The new building of the Jharkhand High Court has been approved. A 165-acre land has been granted near the HEC Industrial Complex, which will be used for the development of the high court, a residential complex for judges and lawyers chambers. The estimated cost for the project is around Rs. 460 Crores. The complex will also have an auditorium with a 1000-seat capacity, four conference rooms, eight committee meeting halls, separate building for advocate general and government pleader.^[1] The Jharkhand High Court started live proceedings of virtual hearings on YouTube on 15 December 2021. The Jharkhand High Court became sixth in the country to start live streaming of hearings on YouTube.

History

A circuit bench of the Patna High Court was established at Ranchi on 6 March 1972 under clause 36 of the letters patent of the Patna High Court. The circuit bench became the permanent bench of the Patna High Court, by the High Court at Patna (Establishment of Permanent Bench at Ranchi) Act 1976 (Act 57 of 1976) on 8 April 1976. This permanent bench finally became the Jharkhand High Court on reorganisation of Bihar state on 15 November 2000.

Chief Justice

Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao is the chief justice of the Jharkhand High Court since 25 September 2024.

	Chief Justice	Portrait	Term
30	Ravi S. Dhavan		6 October 1999	15 November 2000
29	B.M. Lal		29 September 1995	6 October 1999
28	D.P. Wadhwa		29 September 1995	21 March 1997
27	G.P. Patnaik		19 May 1995	11 September 1995
26	K. Venkataswamy		19 September 1994	6 March 1995
25	K. S. Paripoornan		24 January 1994	11 June 1994
24	Bimal Chandra Basak		18 March 1991	21 October 1994
23	Gangadhar Ganesh Sohani		24 October 1989	17 December 1990
22	Shushil Kumar Jha		19 October 1989	23 October 1989
21	Dipak Kumar Sen		1 May 1988	1 May 1989
20	Bhagwati Prasad Jha		2 January 1988	2 January 1988
19	Surjit Singh Sandhawalia		29 November 1983	27 July 1987
18	Krishna Ballabh Narayan Singh		19 July 1976	12 March 1982
17	Shyam Nandan Prasad Singh		3 October 1974	1 May 1976
16	Nand Lall Untwalia		29 September 1972	3 October 1974
15	Ujjal Narayan Sinha		5 September 1970	29 September 1972
14	Satish Chandra Mishra		9 November 1968	5 September 1970
13	Ramaswamy Lakshmi Narasimhan		4 January 1965	2 August 1968
12	Vaidyanathier Ramaswami		30 April 1956	4 January 1965
11	Sudhansu Kumar Das		10 January 1955	30 April 1956
10	Syed Jafar Imam		3 September 1953	10 January 1955
9	David Ezra Reuben		1 June 1952	2 September 1953
8	Pandit Lakshami Kant Jha		8 April 1950	1 June 1952
7	Sir Herbert Ribton Meredith		25 January 1950	8 April 1950
6	Sir Clifford Monmohan Agarwala		9 January 1948	24 January 1950
5	Sir Syed Fazl Ali		19 January 1943	14 October 1946
4	Sir Arther Trevor Harries		10 October 1938	19 January 1943
3	Sir Courtney Terrell		31 March 1928	6 May 1938
2	Sir Thomas Fredrick Dawson Miller		31 October 1917	31 March 1928
1	Sir Edward Maynard Des Champs Chamier		1 March 1916	30 October 1917

List of Chief Justices

#	Portrait	Chief Justice	Term
31		Vinod Kumar Gupta	2000 – 7 March 2003
32		P. K. Balasubramanyan	10 March 2003–26 August 2004
33		S. J. Mukhopadhaya	26 August 2004–2005
34		P. K. Balasubramanyan	2005–2005
35		S. J. Mukhopadhaya	2005–2005
36		Vinod Kumar Gupta	2005–2005
37		Altamas Kabir	1 March 2005–8 September 2005
38		Nelavoy Dhinakar	4 December 2005–10 June 2006
39		S. J. Mukhopadhaya	10 June 2006–2006
40		M.Y. Eqbal	2006 – 17 September 2006
41		Nelavoy Dhinakar	2006–2006
42		M.Y. Eqbal	2006–2006
43		M. Karpaga Vinayagam	2006–2008
44		Gyan Sudha Misra	13 July 2008–29 April 2010
45		Sushil Harkauli	30 April 2010–21 August 2010
46		Bhagwati Prasad (judge)	22 August 2010–12 May 2011
47		Prakash Chandra Tatia	13 May 2011–11 Sep 2011
48		Prakash Chandra Tatia	11 May 2011 – 12 November 2013
49		R. Banumathi	16 November 2013 – 13 August 2014[2]
50		Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel	14 August 2014 – 31 October 2014
51		Virender Singh	1 November 2014 – 6 October 2016
52		Pradip Kumar Mohanty	7 October 2016 – 8 June 2017
53		Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel	9 June 2017 – 3 August 2018
54		Aniruddha Bose	4 August 2018 – 23 May 2019
55		Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel	24 May 2019 – 6 June 2019
56		Prashant Kumar	7 June 2019 – 30 August 2019
57		Harish Chandra Mishra	30 August 2019 – 16 November 2019
58		Dr. Ravi Ranjan	17 November 2019 – 17 November 2019
59		Harish Chandra Mishra	17 November 2019 -17 November 2019
60		Ravi Ranjan	17 November 2019 – 19 December 2022
61		Harish Chandra Mishra	20 December 2022 – 19 February 2023
62		Sanjaya Kumar Mishra	20 February 2023 – 28 December 2023
63		Shree Chandrashekhar	29 December 2023 – 4 July 2024
64		Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi	5 July 2024 – 19 July 2024
65		Sujit Narayan Prasad	20 July 2024 – 24 September 2024
66		M. S. Ramachandra Rao	25 September 2024 – "Incumbent