List of high commissioners of India to Sri Lanka

High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka
Incumbent Santosh Jha since 23 December 2023 (2023-12-23)
Ministry of External Affairs
Style	His Excellency
Reports to	Minister for External Affairs
Seat	Colombo
Appointer	President of India
Inaugural holder	V. V. Giri
Formation	1947
Website	High Commission of India, Colombo

The High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, formerly the High Commissioner of India to Ceylon, is the chief diplomatic representative of India to Sri Lanka. The high commission is located in Colombo.

History

India's diplomatic mission to the Dominion of Ceylon was created following India's independence in 1947. Since both nations became part of the Commonwealth of Nations, the diplomatic mission was designated as a high commission, rather than an embassy. V. V. Giri was appointed as the inaugural high commissioner by Governor-General Lord Mountbatten and remained in office until 1951.

Following Ceylon's becoming a republic in 1972, the mission was re-designated to Sri Lanka and the position was renamed to as the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka.

List

• Ref: ^[1]

#	Portrait	Name	Took office	Left office	Appointer (Head of state)	Notes
1		V. V. Giri	1947	1951	Lord Mountbatten	Later President of India (1969–1974)
2		K. P. Kesava Menon	1951	1952	Rajendra Prasad
3		Chandulal Chunilal Desai	1953	1954		Later Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha (1967–1973)
4		Birendra Narayan Chakraborty, ICS	1955	1956		Later Governor of Haryana (1967–1976)
5		Y. D. Gundevia, ICS	1957	1960		First term; later Foreign Secretary (1963–1965)
6		B. K. Kapur, ICS	1960	1964
7		Bhim Sen Sachar	1964	1967	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	Formerly Chief Minister of Punjab (1949; 1952–1956); Governor of Orissa (1956–1957) and Andhra Pradesh (1957–1962)
(5)		Y. D. Gundevia, ICS	1967	1969		Second term; formerly Foreign Secretary
8		Yogendra Krishna Puri, IFS	1969	1972	V. V. Giri
9		V. C. Coelho, IFS	1973	1975
10		Gurbachan Singh, IFS	1975	1978	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
11		Thomas Abraham, IFS	1978	1982	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
12		Surbir Jit Singh Chhatwal, IFS	1982	1985	Zail Singh
13		Jyotindra Nath Dixit, IFS	1985	1989 [α]		Later Foreign Secretary (1991–1994); and National Security Advisor (2004–2005)
14		Lakhan Lal Mehrotra, IFS	1989	1990	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
15		Nagendra Nath Jha, IFS	1990	1993		Later Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (2001–2004); and Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry (2004)
16		Nareshwar Dayal, IFS	1993	1997	Shankar Dayal Sharma
17		Shivshankar Menon, IFS	1997	2000 [β]	K. R. Narayanan	Later Foreign Secretary (2006–2009); and National Security Advisor (2010–2014)
18		Gopalkrishna Gandhi, IAS	2000	2002 [γ]		Formerly Secretary to the President of India (1997–2000); and later Governor of West Bengal (2004–2009)
19		Nirupem Sen, IFS	2002	2004 [δ]
20		Nirupama Rao, IFS	2004 [2]	2006 [β]	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam	Later Foreign Secretary (2009–2011)
21		Alok Prasad, IFS	2006 [3]	2009		Later Deputy National Security Advisor (2009–2011)
22		Ashok Kantha, IFS	2009 [4]	2013 [β]	Pratibha Patil
23		Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, IFS	2013 [5]	2016 [ε]	Pranab Mukherjee	Later Chief Information Commissioner (2020–2023)
24		Taranjit Singh Sandhu, IFS	2017 [6]	2020 [ζ]
25		Gopal Bagalay, IFS	2020 [7]	2023 [η]	Ram Nath Kovind
26		Santosh Jha, IFS	2023 [8]	Incumbent	Droupadi Murmu

1. Appointed as the High Commissioner to Pakistan
2. Appointed as the Ambassador to China
3. Appointed as the Ambassador to Norway and Iceland
4. Appointed as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations
5. Appointed as the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
6. Appointed as the Ambassador to the United States
7. Appointed as the High Commissioner to Australia

References

1. "Former High Commissioners".
2. "Smt. Nirupama Rao appointed next High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka". mea.gov.in. 7 July 2004.
3. "Alok Prasad takes over as Indian envoy to Lanka". Hindustan Times . 22 December 2006.
4. "Shri Ashok K. Kantha to be the next High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka". mea.gov.in. 2 September 2009.
5. "Shri Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka". mea.gov.in. 22 April 2013.
6. "Taranjit Singh Sandhu appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Sri Lanka". mea.gov.in. 22 September 2016.
7. "Shri Gopal Baglay has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka". mea.gov.in. 1 February 2020.
8. "Shri Santosh Jha appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka". mea.gov.in. 13 September 2023.