20 Dec

Chief Justices of Patna High Court – Table Notes

A. Pre-Independence Chief Justices

Sr. No.	Name	Tenure	Duration	Remarks
1	Edward Maynard Des Champs Chamier	1 Mar 1916 – 30 Oct 1917	1 yr 244 days	—
2	Thomas Fredrick Dawson Miller	31 Oct 1917 – 30 Mar 1928	10 yrs 152 days	—
3	Courtney Terrell	31 Mar 1928 – 6 May 1938	10 yrs 37 days	—
4	Arthur Trevor Harries	10 Oct 1938 – 18 Jan 1943	4 yrs 101 days	Transferred to Lahore, later Calcutta
5	Saiyid Fazl Ali	19 Jan 1943 – 14 Oct 1946	3 yrs 269 days	Elevated to Federal Court of India

B. Post-Independence Chief Justices

Sr. No.	Name	Tenure	Duration	Remarks
6	Clifford Monmohan Agarwala	9 Jan 1948 – 24 Jan 1950	2 yrs 16 days	—
7	Herbert Ribton Meredith	25 Jan 1950 – 7 Apr 1950	73 days	—
8	Pandit Lakshami Kant Jha	8 Apr 1950 – 31 May 1952	2 yrs 54 days	—
9	David Ezra Reuben	1 Jun 1952 – 2 Sep 1953	1 yr 94 days	—
10	Syed Jafar Imam	3 Sep 1953 – 9 Jan 1955	1 yr 129 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
11	Sudhansu Kumar Das	10 Jan 1955 – 29 Apr 1956	1 yr 111 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
12	V. Ramaswami	30 Apr 1956 – 3 Jan 1965	8 yrs 249 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
13	R. L. Narasimham	4 Jan 1965 – 2 Aug 1968	3 yrs 212 days	—
14	Satish Chandra Sharma	9 Nov 1968 – 4 Sep 1970	1 yr 300 days	—
15	Ujjal Narayan Sinha	5 Sep 1970 – 28 Sep 1972	2 yrs 24 days	—
16	Nand Lall Untwalia	29 Sep 1972 – 2 Oct 1974	2 yrs 4 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
17	Shyam Nandan Prasad Singh	3 Oct 1974 – 1 May 1976	1 yr 212 days	—
18	Krishna Ballabh Narayan Singh	19 Jul 1976 – 12 Mar 1982	5 yrs 237 days	Transferred to Madras
19	Surjit Singh Sandhawalia	29 Nov 1983 – 27 Jul 1987	3 yrs 241 days	—
20	Bhagwati Prasad Jha	2 Jan 1988	1 day	Shortest tenure
21	Dipak Kumar Sen	1 May 1988 – 1 May 1989	1 yr 1 day	—
22	Shushil Kumar Jha	19 Oct 1989 – 23 Oct 1989	5 days	Transferred to MP
23	Gangadhar Ganesh Sohani	24 Oct 1989 – 17 Dec 1990	1 yr 55 days	—
24	Bimal Chandra Basak	18 Mar 1991 – 21 Oct 1993	2 yrs 218 days	—
25	K. S. Paripoornan	24 Jan 1994 – 10 Jun 1994	141 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
26	K. Venkataswamy	19 Sep 1994 – 5 Mar 1995	168 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
27	Gopal Ballav Pattanaik	19 May 1995 – 10 Sep 1995	115 days	Later 32nd CJI
28	Devinder Pratap Wadhwa	29 Sep 1995 – 20 Mar 1997	1 yr 173 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
29	Brij Mohan Lal	9 Jul 1997 – 6 Oct 1999	2 yrs 90 days	—
30	Ravi Swaroop Dhavan	25 Jan 2000 – 22 Jul 2004	4 yrs 180 days	—
31	J. N. Bhatt	18 Jul 2005 – 16 Oct 2007	2 yrs 91 days	—
32	Rajesh Balia	5 Jan 2008 – 3 Mar 2008	59 days	—
33	Rajendra Mal Lodha	13 May 2008 – 16 Dec 2008	218 days	Later 41st CJI
34	Jacob Benjamin Koshy	16 Mar 2009 – 12 May 2009	58 days	—
35	Prafulla Kumar Mishra	12 Aug 2009 – 16 Sep 2009	36 days	—
36	Dipak Misra	23 Dec 2009 – 23 May 2010	152 days	Later 45th CJI
37	Rekha Manharlal Doshit	21 Jun 2010 – 12 Dec 2014	4 yrs 175 days	—
38	Lingappa Narasimha Reddy	2 Jan 2015 – 31 Jul 2015	211 days	—
39	Iqbal Ahmed Ansari	29 Jul 2016 – 28 Oct 2016	92 days	—
40	Rajendra Menon	15 Mar 2017 – 8 Aug 2018	1 yr 147 days	Transferred to Delhi
41	Mukesh R. Shah	12 Aug 2018 – 1 Nov 2018	82 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
42	A. P. Sahi	17 Nov 2018 – 10 Nov 2019	359 days	Transferred to Madras
43	Sanjay Karol	11 Nov 2019 – 5 Feb 2023	3 yrs 87 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
44	K. V. Chandran	29 Mar 2023 – 15 Jan 2025	1 yr 293 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
45	Vipul Manubhai Pancholi	21 Jul 2025 – 28 Aug 2025	39 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
—	Pavankumar B. Bajanthri (Acting)	29 Aug 2025 – Present	—	Acting Chief Justice

Bihar : Polity and Governance

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