List of chief justices of the Patna High Court

The list shows incumbent and past chief justices of Patna High Court, the high court of the state of Bihar. In Indian legal jurisdiction, high courts are instituted as constitutional courts under the Indian Constitution.

List

Patna High Court was established on 2 September 1916 under Letters Patent issued by then British Crown and had 45 Chief Justices till date Current Chief Justice P. B. Bajanthri who is serving as Acting Chief Justice from 29 August 2025.

Sr. No.	Name	Date of Appointment	Date of Retirement	Tenure	Remarks
Pre-Independence
1	Edward Maynard Des Champs Chamier	1 March 1916	30 October 1917	1 year, 244 days
2	Thomas Fredrick Dawson Miller	31 October 1917	30 March 1928	10 years, 152 days
3	Courtney Terrell	31 March 1928	6 May 1938	10 years, 37 days
4	Arthur Trevor Harries	10 October 1938	18 January 1943	4 years, 101 days	Transferred to Lahore Later transferred to Calcutta
5	Saiyid Fazl Ali	19 January 1943	14 October 1946	3 years, 269 days	Elevated to Federal Court of India
Post-Independence
6	Clifford Monmohan Agarwala	9 January 1948	24 January 1950	2 years, 16 days
7	Herbert Ribton Meredith	25 January 1950	7 April 1950	73 days
8	Pandit Lakshami Kant Jha	8 April 1950	31 May 1952	2 years, 54 days
9	David Ezra Reuben	1 June 1952	2 September 1953	1 year, 94 days
10	Syed Jafar Imam	3 September 1953	9 January 1955	1 year, 129 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
11	Sudhansu Kumar Das	10 January 1955	29 April 1956	1 year, 111 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
12	Vaidyanathier Ramaswami	30 April 1956	3 January 1965	8 years, 249 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
13	Ramaswamy Laxman Narasimham	4 January 1965	2 August 1968	3 years, 212 days
14	Satish Chandra Sharma	9 November 1968	4 September 1970	1 year, 300 days
15	Ujjal Narayan Sinha	5 September 1970	28 September 1972	2 years, 24 days
16	Nand Lall Untwalia	29 September 1972	2 October 1974	2 years, 4 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
17	Shyam Nandan Prasad Singh	3 October 1974	1 May 1976	1 year, 212 days
18	Krishna Ballabh Narayan Singh	19 July 1976	12 March 1982	5 years, 237 days	Transferred to Madras
19	Surjit Singh Sandhawalia	29 November 1983	27 July 1987	3 years, 241 days
20	Bhagwati Prasad Jha	2 January 1988	2 January 1988	1 day
21	Dipak Kumar Sen	1 May 1988	1 May 1989	1 year, 1 day
22	Shushil Kumar Jha	19 October 1989	23 October 1989	5 days	Transferred to Madhya Pradesh
23	Gangadhar Ganesh Sohani	24 October 1989	17 December 1990	1 year, 55 days
24	Bimal Chandra Basak	18 March 1991	21 October 1993	2 years, 218 days
25	Krishnaswami Sundara Paripoornan	24 January 1994	10 June 1994	141 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
26	Konduswami Venkataswamy	19 September 1994	5 March 1995	168 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
27	Gopal Ballav Pattanaik	19 May 1995	10 September 1995	115 days	Served as 32nd CJI (8 November 2002 – 18 December 2002)
28	Devinder Pratap Wadhwa	29 September 1995	20 March 1997	1 year, 173 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
29	Brij Mohan Lal	9 July 1997	6 October 1999	2 years, 90 days
30	Ravi Swaroop Dhavan	25 January 2000	22 July 2004	4 years, 180 days
31	J.N. Bhatt	18 July 2005	16 October 2007	2 years, 91 days
32	Rajesh Balia	5 January 2008	3 March 2008	59 days
33	Rajendra Mal Lodha	13 May 2008	16 December 2008	218 days	Served as 41st CJI (27 April 2014 – 27 September 2014)
34	Jacob Benjamin Koshy	16 March 2009	12 May 2009	58 days
35	Prafulla Kumar Mishra	12 August 2009	16 September 2009	36 days
36	Dipak Misra	23 December 2009	23 May 2010	152 days	Transferred to Delhi Served as 45th CJI (28 August 2017 – 2 October 2018)
37	Rekha Manharlal Doshit	21 June 2010	12 December 2014	4 years, 175 days
38	Lingappa Narasimha Reddy	2 January 2015	31 July 2015	211 days
39	Iqbal Ahmed Ansari	29 July 2016	28 October 2016	92 days
40	Rajendra Menon	15 March 2017	8 August 2018	1 year, 147 days	Transferred to Delhi
41	Mukesh Rasikbhai Shah	12 August 2018	1 November 2018	82 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
42	Amreshwar Pratap Sahi	17 November 2018	10 November 2019	359 days	Transferred to Madras
43	Sanjay Karol	11 November 2019	5 February 2023	3 years, 87 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
44	Krishnan Vinod Chandran	29 March 2023	15 January 2025	1 year, 293 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
45	Vipul Manubhai Pancholi	21 July 2025	28 August 2025	39 days	Elevated to Supreme Court
--	Pavankumar Bhimappa Bajanthri	29 August 2025	Incumbent	128 days	Acting

List

See also