President Droupadi Murmu appointed eight serving judges as Chief Justices of High Courts on 5 September 2026, following recommendations of the Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. The Ministry of Law and Justice notified the appointments the same day, covering the High Courts of Patna, Calcutta, Rajasthan, Bombay, Punjab and Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. With this single round, all 25 High Courts in India are now headed by regular Chief Justices.
Full List of Eight New High Court Chief Justices
The notification appoints serving judges from one High Court as the head of another High Court in most cases. Only one appointee, Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra, has been made the regular head of the same court where he was serving as Acting Chief Justice. Union Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal announced the names after the President approved them in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.
| New Chief Justice | Earlier Court | Appointed As Chief Justice Of | Principal Seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justice Valluri Kameswar Rao | Delhi High Court | Patna High Court | Patna |
| Justice Ravindra V. Ghuge | Bombay High Court | Calcutta High Court | Kolkata |
| Justice Sanjay Kumar Agrawal | Chhattisgarh High Court | Rajasthan High Court | Jodhpur |
| Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi | Allahabad High Court | Bombay High Court | Mumbai |
| Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra | Punjab and Haryana High Court (Acting Chief Justice) | Punjab and Haryana High Court | Chandigarh |
| Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra | Orissa High Court | Chhattisgarh High Court | Bilaspur |
| Justice Alpesh Yeshvant Kogje | Gujarat High Court | Madhya Pradesh High Court | Jabalpur |
| Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati | Rajasthan High Court | High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh | Srinagar and Jammu |
Justice Kameswar Rao was born on 7 August 1965 and enrolled with the Delhi Bar Council in 1991. He became an Additional Judge of the Delhi High Court in 2013 and a permanent judge in 2015, and he was recommended for Patna by the Collegium on 6 August 2026. Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Allahabad High Court on 3 February 2014, confirmed in 2016, transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court in July 2025, and served as Acting Chief Justice there from 2 June 2026 after the elevation of Justice Sheel Nagu to the Supreme Court.
Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati was born on 21 September 1970 and practised at the Rajasthan High Court for nearly 25 years after enrolling in 1992. He served as Additional Advocate General for Rajasthan and as Standing Counsel for Indian Railways for 16 years before his elevation as a judge on 16 November 2016. He took oath as the 39th Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court on 9 September 2026 at Srinagar. Justice Alpesh Yeshvant Kogje was born on 16 July 1969, enrolled at the Bar in 1993, served as Assistant Government Pleader and Additional Public Prosecutor, and became a judge of the Gujarat High Court on 6 April 2016.
What Is a High Court Chief Justice and How Is the Post Filled?
A Chief Justice of a High Court is the administrative and judicial head of the court. The Chief Justice leads the division of cases among benches, heads the High Court Collegium that proposes names for appointment as judges, and supervises the district judiciary in the state under Article 227 of the Constitution. High Courts are courts of record and hear appeals, writ petitions under Article 226, and important civil and criminal cases.
India has 25 High Courts under Articles 214 to 231 in Part VI of the Constitution. The oldest three, the Calcutta, Bombay and Madras High Courts, were set up in 1862 under the Indian High Courts Act, 1861. The Calcutta High Court sits at Kolkata and covers West Bengal and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Bombay High Court sits at Mumbai and covers Maharashtra, Goa, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. The Patna High Court, set up in 1916, sits at Patna and covers Bihar. The Madhya Pradesh High Court sits at Jabalpur with benches at Gwalior and Indore, while the Rajasthan High Court sits at Jodhpur with a bench at Jaipur.
The Constitution lays down clear service terms for the post. Every judge of a High Court is appointed by the President of India by warrant under Article 217(1) after consultation with the Chief Justice of India and the Governor of the state concerned. A person can become a High Court judge only if the person is a citizen of India and has held judicial office in India for at least 10 years or has been an advocate of a High Court for at least 10 years. Every appointee must take an oath or affirmation before the Governor under Article 219 before taking charge. A High Court Chief Justice holds office until the age of 62 years. This limit was raised from 60 to 62 by the 15th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1963. A Chief Justice draws a salary of ₹2,50,000 per month, while other High Court judges draw ₹2,25,000 per month.
What Is the Collegium System in India?
The Collegium system is the present method for selecting judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts. It is not written in the original text of the Constitution. It developed through three Supreme Court decisions known as the Judges Cases. In the First Judges Case of 1981, the court said consultation did not mean the government must accept the Chief Justice of India’s view. In the Second Judges Case of 1993 and the Third Judges Case of 1998, the court gave primacy to the judiciary and created the Collegium. For High Court appointments, the Supreme Court Collegium consists of the Chief Justice of India and the two senior most judges of the Supreme Court.
The Collegium recommends a serving judge for appointment as Chief Justice after checking seniority, performance in judgments, integrity, and the need to give representation to different High Courts. Parliament tried to replace this system with the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) through the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2014. The Supreme Court struck down the NJAC in 2015 on the ground that it harmed the independence of the judiciary, which is part of the basic structure of the Constitution. The Collegium system was then restored.
How the Recommendation Moves to Appointment
The process for a Chief Justice starts with the Chief Justice of India. The Chief Justice of India consults the two senior most Supreme Court judges and the senior most Supreme Court judge who knows the working of the concerned High Court. The recommendation then goes to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice. The Ministry obtains the views of the state government concerned through the Governor, places the file before the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister advises the President. The President then issues the warrant of appointment. A transfer of a Chief Justice from one High Court to another is made under Article 222, while an Acting Chief Justice is appointed under Article 223 when the post falls vacant temporarily.
Consultation with the state government is mandatory but it is not a veto. Article 217 uses the word consultation and not consent. The state can share inputs on suitability, but the final choice rests with the President acting on the Collegium recommendation. Under the Memorandum of Procedure, the Centre seeks the state’s views, and for appointment of High Court judges the state is ordinarily given six weeks to reply. If no reply comes in that period, the Centre can presume there is no objection. For Chief Justices, the Memorandum does not fix an identical time limit, which has led to debate about how long the Centre must wait. In this round, most names were recommended on 6 August 2026, three names on 31 August 2026, and the Chhattisgarh vacancy arose on retirement on 4 September 2026, with all appointments notified on 5 September 2026.
Why These Appointments Matter for the Judiciary
The most direct result is stability at the top. Many of these courts were working under Acting Chief Justices. Punjab and Haryana was headed by Justice Mishra as Acting Chief Justice since June 2026, Chhattisgarh by Justice Sanjay Kumar Agrawal as Acting Chief Justice, and Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh by Justice Sanjeev Kumar as Acting Chief Justice since 2 June 2026. An Acting Chief Justice can handle routine work, but long term planning on case pendency, roster allocation, and filling of judicial vacancies needs a regular Chief Justice. With regular heads in place, the Collegium can now focus on filling judge vacancies in High Courts and four existing vacancies in the Supreme Court.
The Rajasthan posting carries an extra context. The Rajasthan High Court was in the news after a Supreme Court judge raised concerns about the functioning of its then Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma, including questions over allocation of cases. The Collegium recommended an out of state senior judge, Justice Sanjay Kumar Agrawal from Chhattisgarh, as the new Chief Justice of Rajasthan. The practice of appointing the Chief Justice from another High Court is deliberate. It helps protect neutrality, since the Chief Justice decides which bench hears which case and leads transfers and postings in the lower judiciary.
The appointments also underline how the system balances judicial primacy with executive participation. The judiciary selects the names, but the appointment is complete only when the President signs the warrant and the Ministry notifies it. State governments are consulted through Governors, and the Centre can return a name once for reconsideration. If the Collegium repeats the name, the government is bound to appoint. This balance explains why the Punjab appointment drew attention when the state said its views were still under study, while the Centre stated that views had been sought on 10 August 2026 but were not received before notification.
Key Takeaways
- President Droupadi Murmu appointed eight High Court Chief Justices on 5 September 2026 on the recommendation of the Supreme Court Collegium headed by Surya Kant.
- Justice Valluri Kameswar Rao was appointed Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, and Justice Ravindra V. Ghuge was appointed Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.
- Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi was appointed Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, while Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati became the 39th Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court.
- High Court Chief Justices are appointed by the President under Article 217(1), take oath before the Governor under Article 219, and retire at 62 years.
- For High Court appointments, the Supreme Court Collegium consists of the Chief Justice of India and the two senior most judges, a system created by the Judges Cases of 1993 and 1998 after the NJAC was struck down in 2015.
- With this round, all 25 High Courts of India are headed by regular Chief Justices.
