High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh

The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir was established by Order No. 1, issued by Maharaja Hari Singh on 26 March 1928. The Maharaja appointed Lala Kanwar Sain as the first chief justice, and Lala Bodh Raj Sawhney and Khan Sahib Aga Syed Hussain as puisne judges.^[4] The High Court sat at both the winter capital of Jammu, and the summer capital of Srinagar. The Maharaja conferred letters patent on the High Court on 10 September 1943.

Puisne judge Khan Sahib Aga Syed Hussain^[5] was the first Muslim judge of the High Court. He retired as Home and Judicial Minister of Jammu and Kashmir during the Maharaja's rule.^[6]

In August 2018, the High Court got its first and second woman judges with Justice Sindhu Sharma, who was appointed a judge, and Justice Gita Mittal, who was appointed the chief justice.^{[citation needed]}

In August 2019, a Reorganisation Bill was passed by both houses of the Indian Parliament. This bill reorganised the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh—as of 31 October 2019. After this reorganisation, the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir continued serving as the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh for both union territories.

The seat of the court shifts between the summer capital Srinagar and winter capital Jammu.

The high court has a sanctioned judge strength of 17, out of whom 13 are permanent judges, and 4 are additional judges.^[10][11] Justice Sanjeev Kumar is currently serving as the Acting Chief Justice of the high court since 2 June, 2026.

This sections contains list of only those judges elevated as chief justices whose parent high court is Jammu & Kashmir. This includes those judges who, at the time of appointment as chief justice, may not be serving in Jammu & Kashmir High Court but this list does not include judges who at the time of appointment as chief justice were serving in Jammu & Kashmir High Court but does not have Jammu & Kashmir as their Parent High Court.^[12]

More information Name, Image ...

Name	Image	Appointed as CJ in HC of	Date of appointment		Date of retirement[a]	Tenure		Ref..
			As Judge	As Chief Justice		As Chief Justice	As Judge[b]
Janki Nath Wazir		Jammu & Kashmir	1937	30 March 1948	2 December 1967	19 years, 248 days		[13]
Syed Murtaza Fazl Ali		Jammu & Kashmir	9 April 1958	3 December 1967	1 April 1975[‡]	7 years, 120 days	16 years, 358 days
Raja Jaswant Singh		Jammu & Kashmir	3 December 1967	2 April 1975	22 January 1976[‡]	296 days	8 years, 51 days
Mian Jalal-ud-Din		Jammu & Kashmir	10 July 1968	15 February 1978	22 February 1980	2 years, 8 days	11 years, 228 days	[14]
Mufti Baha-ud-Din		Jammu & Kashmir	27 August 1971	7 March 1983	23 August 1983[RES]	170 days	11 years, 362 days	[15]
Adarsh Sein Anand		Jammu & Kashmir, transferred to Madras	26 May 1975	11 May 1985	17 November 1991[‡]	6 years, 191 days	16 years, 176 days
Ram Prakash Sethi		Karnataka	30 May 1986	29 June 1996	6 January 1999[‡]	2 years, 192 days	12 years, 222 days
Vinod Kumar Gupta		Jharkhand, transferred to Himachal Pradesh then to Uttarakhand	7 November 1990	5 December 2000	9 September 2009	8 years, 279 days	18 years, 307 days	[16]
Bashir Ahmed Khan		Jammu & Kashmir	12 November 1990	25 January 2007	31 March 2007	66 days	16 years, 140 days	[17]
Tirath Singh Thakur		Punjab & Haryana	16 February 1994	11 August 2008	16 November 2009[‡]	1 year, 98 days	15 years, 274 days
Bilal Nazki		Orissa	6 January 1995	14 November 2009	17 November 2009	4 days	14 years, 316 days	[18]
Nisar Ahmad Kakru		Andhra Pradesh	26 November 1997	19 February 2010	25 October 2011	1 year, 249 days	13 years, 334 days	[19]
Permod Kohli		Sikkim	7 January 2003	12 December 2011	28 February 2013	1 year, 79 days	10 years, 53 days	[20]
Mansoor Ahmad Mir		Himachal Pradesh	31 January 2005	18 June 2014	24 April 2017	2 years, 311 days	12 years, 84 days	[21]
Mohammad Yaqoob Mir		Meghalaya	23 November 2007	21 May 2018	27 May 2019	1 year, 7 days	11 years, 186 days	[22]
Ali Mohammad Magrey		Jammu & Kashmir	8 March 2013	12 October 2022	7 December 2022	57 days	9 years, 275 days
Dhiraj Singh Thakur		Andhra Pradesh		28 July 2023	24 April 2026	2 years, 271 days	13 years, 48 days	[23]
Tashi Rabstan		Jammu & Kashmir		27 September 2024	9 April 2025	195 days	12 years, 33 days

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This section includes the list of only those judges whose parent high court was Jammu & Kashmir. This includes those judges who, at the time of elevation to Supreme Court of India, may not be serving in Jammu & Kashmir High Court but this list does not include judges who at the time of elevation were serving in Jammu & Kashmir High Court but does not have Jammu & Kashmir as their Parent High Court.

More information #, Name of the Judge ...

#	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	Syed Murtaza Fazl Ali		9 April 1958	2 April 1975	20 August 1985[†]	16 years, 358 days	10 years, 141 days	27 years, 134 days	8th CJ of Jammu & Kashmir HC
2	Raja Jaswant Singh		3 December 1967	23 January 1976	24 January 1979	8 years, 51 days	3 years, 2 days	11 years, 53 days	9th CJ of Jammu & Kashmir HC
3	Adarsh Sein Anand		26 May 1975	18 November 1991	31 October 2001	16 years, 176 days	9 years, 348 days	26 years, 159 days	24th CJ of Madras HC
4	Ram Prakash Sethi		30 May 1986	8 January 1999	6 July 2002	12 years, 222 days	3 years, 180 days	16 years, 38 days	18th CJ of Karnataka HC
5	Tirath Singh Thakur		16 February 1994	17 November 2009	3 January 2017	15 years, 274 days	7 years, 47 days	22 years, 323 days	28th CJ of Punjab & Haryana HC

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• Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain (born 1949), former Jammu and Kashmir High Court judge

In 2001, the High Court established its regular Judicial Academy via order No. 342, dated 26 July. Since then, Jammu and Kashmir State Judicial Academy functions regularly and holds training programmes. Jammu and Kashmir State Judicial Academy has its own infrastructure in Jammu (in the premises of the High Court) and in Srinagar (Mominabad).

The administrative machinery of High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh moves to Srinagar, its summer capital, in April and Jammu, its winter capital, in November every year. In view of this tradition, Jammu and Kashmir State Judicial Academy also functions likewise from Jammu and Srinagar. It has infrastructures both in Jammu and Srinagar.