Uttarakhand High Court


The Uttarakhand High Court is the High Court of the state of Uttarakhand in India. The Uttarakhand State was carved out from the State of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000 under the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000. At the time of the creation of the State, the High Court of Uttarakhand was also established on the same day at Nainital.
The sanctioned judge strength at the time of creation in 2000 was 7; this was increased to 9 in 2003. Justice Ashok Abhaiendra Desai was the inaugural holder of the office. Former Chief Justices of Uttarakhand Sarosh Homi Kapadia and Jagdish Singh Khehar later went on to become Chief Justice of India. Ravi Vijaykumar Malimath is the current Acting Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court. He assumed office on 28 July 2020.

List of sitting judges of the Uttarakhand High Court

There are currently nine sitting judges including the Acting Chief Justice, with two posts of judges lying vacant.
Following is the list of the current serving judges of the Uttarakhand High Court, ordered by seniority.

Registrar General

Hira Singh Bonal is the current Registrar General of the Uttarakhand High Court. He Assumed office on 29 June 2019.

Notable cases

In March 2017, Uttarakhand High Court mandated that the rivers Ganges and Yamuna as well as all water bodies are "living entities" i.e. "legal person" and appointed 3 persons as trustees to protect the rights of rivers against the pollution caused by the humans.