| Madhya Pradesh High Court मध्य प्रदेश उच्च न्यायालय | |
|---|---|
| Panoramic view of the Court building | |
| Official logo Madhya Pradesh High Court | |
Interactive map of Madhya Pradesh High Court मध्य प्रदेश उच्च न्यायालय | |
| 23°9′38″N79°56′19″E / 23.16056°N 79.93861°E [1] | |
| Established | 2 January 1936; 86 years ago |
| Jurisdiction | Madhya Pradesh |
| Location | Principal Seat: Jabalpur, M.P. Circuit Benches: Indore and Gwalior |
| Coordinates | 23°9′38″N79°56′19″E / 23.16056°N 79.93861°E [1] |
| Composition method | Presidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state. |
| Authorised by | Constitution of India |
| Appeals to | Supreme Court of India |
| Judge term length | Mandatory retirement by age of 62 |
| Number of positions | 53 |
| Language | Hindi English |
| Website | http://mphc.gov.in/ |
| Chief Justice | |
| Currently | Sanjeev Sachdeva |
| Since | 17 July 2025 |
The Madhya Pradesh High Court is the High Court of the state of Madhya Pradesh which is located in Jabalpur. It was established as the Nagpur High Court on 2 January 1936 by Letters Patent dated 2 January 1936, issued under Section 108 the Government of India Act, 1935 . This Letters Patent continued in force even after the adoption of the constitution of India on 26 January 1950 by virtue of Articles 225 & 372 thereof. The court has a sanctioned judge strength of 53.
The present state of Madhya Pradesh was originally created as Central Provinces in the 19th century, as Judicial Commission's territory and was administered by the Judicial Commissioner. The Judicial Commissioner's court at Nagpur was, at that time, the highest court of the territory. It was converted into a Governor's province in 1921, when it became entitled to a full-fledged High Court for the administration of justice.
Later, Berar, a part of Nizam's state of Hyderabad, was transferred in 1933 to the Central Province, for administration. This gave the state its new name Central Provinces and Berar. Thereafter, by virtue of Letters Patent dated 2 January 1936, issued under Section 108 of the Government of India Act, 1935, by King Emperor, George the Fifth, the Nagpur High Court was established for Central Pronvices and Berar. This Letters Patent, under which the Nagpur High Court was constituted and invested with jurisdiction, continued to remain in force even after the adoption of the constitution of India on 26 January 1950, by virtue of Articles 225 & 372 thereof.
On 1 November 1956, the new state of Madhya Pradesh was constituted under States Reorganisation Act. Subsection (1) of Section 49 of the States Re-organisation Act ordained that from the appointed day i.e., 1 November 1956, the High Court exercising jurisdiction, in relation to the existing state of Madhya Pradesh, i.e. Nagpur High Court, shall be deemed to be the High Court for the present state of Madhya Pradesh. Thus Nagpur High Court was not abolished but by a legal fiction it became High Court for the new state of Madhya Pradesh with its seat at Jabalpur. Hon'ble the Chief Justice, vide order dated 1 November 1956 constituted temporary benches of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Indore and Gwalior. Later, by a Presidential Notification Dt. 28 November 1968, issued in the exercise of the powers conferred by the Subsection (2) of section 51 of the States Reorganization Act, 1956, permanent benches of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Indore and Gwalior were established. This state of affairs continued till 1 November 2000, when the state of Chhattisgarh was carved of the existing state of Madhya Pradesh by virtue of the provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2000 and the High Court of Chhattisgarh was established for that state with its seat at Bilaspur. The High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur then became High Court for the successor state of Madhya Pradesh. [2] [3]
The principal seat of the court is in Jabalpur. The court is housed in an impressive building constructed by Raja Gokul Das in 1899. The building was designed by Henry Irwin in 1886. The construction work of this building was commenced in 1886 and completed in 1889. The building was constructed in brick-lime with ornamental towers and cornices. The architecture of the building is mixed baroque and oriental. The arches, as well as the bastions at the corners, are ornamental. There are 25 courtrooms in this building.
On 1 November 1956, two temporary benches of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh were constituted, one at Indore and the other at Gwalior. Later by a Notification, these were converted to permanent benches on 28 November 1968.
The current sitting judges of the court are as follows: [4]
| # | Chief Justice | Term |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gilbert Stone | 9 January 1936 – 1943 |
| 2 | Frederick Louis Grille | 1943 – 1949 |
| 3 | Vivian Bose | 1949 – 1951 |
| 4 | Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha | 24 February 1951 – 2 December 1954 |
| 5 | M. Hidayatullah | 3 December 1954 – 31 October 1956 |
| # | Chief Justice | Tenure | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Finish | ||
| 1 | M. Hidayatullah | 1 November 1956 | 30 November 1958 |
| 2 | Ganesh Prasad Bhutt | 13 December 1958 | 12 September 1959 |
| 3 | P. V. Dixit | 22 September 1959 | 18 March 1969 |
| 4 | Bishambhar Dayal | 19 March 1969 | 13 September 1972 |
| 5 | P. K. Tare | 14 September 1972 | 10 October 1975 |
| 6 | Shiv Dayal Shrivastava | 11 October 1975 | 27 February 1978 |
| 7 | Ananda Prakash Sen | 28 February 1978 | 16 July 1978 |
| 8 | G. P. Singh | 27 July 1978 | 3 January 1984 |
| 9 | Goverdhanlal Jamnalal Oza | 1 December 1984 | 28 October 1985 |
| 10 | J. S. Verma | 14 June 1986 | 31 August 1986 |
| 11 | Narayan Dutt Ojha | 8 January 1987 | 17 January 1988 |
| 12 | G. G. Sohani | 20 October 1989 | 23 October 1989 |
| 13 | Sushil Kumar Jha | 27 October 1989 | 15 December 1993 |
| 14 | Ullal Lakshminarayan Bhat | 15 December 1993 | 13 October 1995 |
| 15 | A. K. Mathur | 3 February 1996 | 21 December 1999 |
| 16 | Bhawani Singh | 24 February 2000 | 24 August 2003 |
| 17 | Kumar Rajarathnam | 6 September 2003 | 12 March 2004 |
| 18 | R. V. Raveendran | 8 July 2004 | 8 September 2005 |
| 19 | A. K. Patnaik | 2 October 2005 | 16 November 2009 |
| 20 | Syed Rafat Alam | 20 December 2009 | 4 August 2011 |
| 21 | Sharad Arvind Bobde | 16 October 2012 | 11 April 2013 |
| 22 | Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar | 24 November 2013 | 12 May 2016 |
| 23 | Hemant Gupta | 18 March 2017 | 1 November 2018 |
| 24 | Sanjay Kumar Seth | 14 November 2018 | 9 June 2019 |
| 25 | Ajay Kumar Mittal | 3 November 2019 | 29 September 2020 |
| 26 | Mohammad Rafiq | 3 January 2021 | 13 October 2021 |
| 27 | Ravi Malimath | 14 October 2021 | 24 May 2024 |
| 28 | Suresh Kumar Kait | 25 September 2024 | 23 May 2025 |
| 29 | Sanjeev Sachdeva | 17 July 2025 | incumbent |
This sections contains list of only those judges elevated as chief justices whose parent high court is Madhya Pradesh. This includes those judges who, at the time of appointment as chief justice, may not be serving in Madhya Pradesh High Court but this list does not include judges who at the time of appointment as chief justice were serving in Madhya Pradesh High Court but does not have Madhya Pradesh as their Parent High Court.
| Name | Image | Appointed as CJ in HC of | Date of appointment | Date of retirement [a] | Tenure | Transferred as CJ to HC of | Ref.. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| As Judge | As Chief Justice | As Chief Justice | As Judge [b] | ||||||
| Prabhakar Keshava Tare | Madhya Pradesh | 14 December 1957 | 14 September 1972 | 10 October 1975 | 3 years, 27 days | 17 years, 301 days | -- | [5] | |
| Shivdayal Shrivastava | 3 November 1958 | 11 October 1975 | 27 February 1978 | 2 years, 140 days | 19 years, 117 days | -- | |||
| Ananda Prakash Sen | 7 November 1967 | 28 February 1978 | 16 July 1978 [†] | 139 days | 10 years, 252 days | -- | |||
| Guru Prasanna Singh | 27 July 1978 | 3 January 1984 | 5 years, 161 days | 16 years, 58 days | -- | ||||
| Goverdhan Lal Oza | 29 July 1968 | 1 December 1984 | 26 October 1985 [†] | 330 days | 17 years, 90 days | -- | |||
| Jagdish Sharan Verma | | 12 September 1972 | 14 June 1986 | 2 June 1989 [†] | 2 years, 354 days | 16 years, 264 days | Rajasthan | ||
| Gangadhar Ganesh Sohani | 2 June 1973 | 20 October 1989 | 18 December 1990 | 1 year, 60 days | 17 years, 200 days | Patna | |||
| Bipin Chandra Verma | Punjab & Haryana | 21 August 1978 | 19 September 1991 | 2 May 1992 | 227 days | 13 years, 256 days | -- | [6] | |
| Shashi Kant Seth | Himachal Pradesh | 27 November 1978 | 22 June 1993 | 27 August 1993 | 67 days | 14 years, 274 days | -- | ||
| Gulab Chand Gupta | 20 June 1983 | 17 September 1994 | 28 February 1995 | 165 days | 11 years, 254 days | -- | |||
| Brij Mohan Lal | Patna | 14 May 1984 | 9 July 1997 | 6 October 1999 | 2 years, 90 days | 15 years, 146 days | -- | ||
| Krishna Murari Agarwal | Sikkim | 15 February 1996 | 26 October 1996 | 255 days | 12 years, 166 days | -- | |||
| Devdatta Madhav Dharmadhikari | Gujarat | 24 March 1989 | 25 January 2000 | 4 March 2002 [†] | 2 years, 39 days | 12 years, 346 days | -- | [7] | |
| Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar | Gauhati | 15 June 1992 | 10 June 2002 | 26 August 2004 | 2 years, 78 days | 12 years, 73 days | -- | ||
| Rajeev Gupta | Kerala | 27 September 1994 | 27 April 2005 | 9 October 2012 | 7 years, 166 days | 18 years, 13 days | Uttarakhand then to Chhattisgarh | [6] | |
| Deepak Verma | Rajasthan | 15 December 1994 | 6 March 2009 | 10 May 2009 [†] | 69 days | 14 years, 147 days | -- | [7] | |
| Ramesh Surajmal Garg | Gauhati | 17 April 2010 | 18 June 2010 | 63 days | 15 years, 186 days | -- | [6] | ||
| Arun Kumar Mishra | | Rajasthan | 25 October 1999 | 26 November 2010 | 6 July 2014 [†] | 3 years, 223 days | 14 years, 255 days | Calcutta | [7] |
| Abhay Manohar Sapre | | Manipur | 23 March 2013 | 12 August 2014 [†] | 1 year, 164 days | 14 years, 292 days | Gauhati | ||
| Uma Nath Singh | Meghalaya | 22 October 2001 | 19 March 2015 | 14 January 2016 | 302 days | 14 years, 85 days | -- | [6] | |
| Ajit Singh | Gauhati | 1 April 2002 | 5 March 2016 | 5 September 2018 | 2 years, 185 days | 16 years, 158 days | -- | ||
| Rajendra Menon | Patna | 15 March 2017 | 6 June 2019 | 2 years, 84 days | 17 years, 67 days | Delhi | |||
| Sanjay Kumar Seth | Madhya Pradesh | 21 March 2003 | 14 November 2018 | 9 June 2019 | 208 days | 16 years, 81 days | -- | [5] | |
| Ravi Shankar Jha | Punjab & Haryana | 18 October 2005 | 6 October 2019 | 13 October 2023 | 4 years, 8 days | 17 years, 361 days | -- | [6] | |
| Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari | | Andhra Pradesh | 25 November 2005 | 7 October 2019 | 30 August 2021 [†] | 1 year, 328 days | 15 years, 279 days | Sikkim | [7] |
| Sanjay Yadav | Allahabad | 2 March 2007 | 13 June 2021 | 25 June 2021 | 13 days | 14 years, 116 days | -- | [6] | |
| Satish Chandra Sharma | | Telangana | 18 January 2008 | 11 October 2021 | 8 November 2023 [†] | 2 years, 29 days | 15 years, 295 days | Delhi | [7] |
| Prakash Shrivastava | Calcutta | 30 March 2023 | 1 year, 171 days | 15 years, 72 days | -- | [6] | |||
| Alok Aradhe | | Telangana | 29 December 2009 | 23 July 2023 | 28 August 2025 [†] | 2 years, 37 days | 15 years, 243 days | Bombay | |
| Sheel Nagu | Punjab & Haryana | 27 May 2011 | 9 July 2024 | Incumbent | 1 year, 194 days | 14 years, 237 days | -- | ||
| Sujoy Paul | Calcutta | 16 January 2026 | 3 days | 14 years, 237 days | -- | ||||
| Name | Image | Appointed as CJ in HC of | Date of appointment | Date of retirement [a] | Tenure | Transferred as CJ to HC of | Ref.. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| As Judge | As Chief Justice | As Chief Justice | As Judge [b] | ||||||
| Vivian Bose | Nagpur | 9 January 1936 | 20 February 1949 | 5 March 1951 [†] | 2 years, 13 days | 15 years, 55 days | -- | [8] | |
| Mohammad Hidayatullah | | Nagpur | 27 June 1946 | 3 December 1954 | 30 November 1958 [†] | 3 years, 363 days | 12 years, 157 days | Madhya Pradesh | [9] |
| Ganesh Prasad Bhutt | Madhya Pradesh | 1953 | 13 December 1958 | 22 September 1959 | 284 days | -- | |||
| Yeshwant Shripad Tambe | Bombay | 8 February 1954 | 7 February 1966 | 31 July 1966 | 175 days | 12 years, 174 days | -- | [10] | |
| Sohrab Peshotan Kotval | Bombay | 18 August 1955 | 1 August 1966 | 27 September 1972 | 6 years, 58 days | 17 years, 41 days | -- | [11] | |
This section includes the list of only those judges whose parent high court was Madhya Pradesh. This includes those judges who, at the time of elevation to Supreme Court of India, may not be serving in Madhya Pradesh High Court but this list does not include judges who at the time of elevation were serving in Madhya Pradesh High Court but does not have Madhya Pradesh as their Parent High Court.
| # | Name of the Judge | Image | Date of Appointment | Date of Retirement | Tenure | Immediately preceding office | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In Parent High Court | In Supreme Court | In High Court(s) | In Supreme Court | Total tenure [a] | |||||
| 1 | Ananda Prakash Sen | 7 November 1967 | 17 July 1978 | 19 September 1988 | 10 years, 252 days | 10 years, 65 days | 20 years, 318 days | 7th CJ of Madhya Pradesh HC | |
| 2 | Goverdhan Lal Oza | 29 July 1968 | 29 October 1985 | 11 December 1989 | 17 years, 90 days | 4 years, 44 days | 21 years, 136 days | 9th CJ of Madhya Pradesh HC | |
| 3 | Jagdish Sharan Verma | | 12 September 1972 | 3 June 1989 | 17 January 1998 | 16 years, 264 days | 8 years, 229 days | 25 years, 128 days | 16th CJ of Rajasthan HC |
| 4 | Faizanuddin | 27 November 1978 | 14 December 1993 | 4 February 1997 | 15 years, 17 days | 3 years, 53 days | 18 years, 70 days | Judge of Madhya Pradesh HC | |
| 5 | Ramesh Chandra Lahoti | | 3 May 1988 | 9 December 1998 | 31 October 2005 | 10 years, 220 days | 6 years, 327 days | 17 years, 182 days | Judge of Delhi HC |
| 6 | Devdatta Madhav Dharmadhikari | 24 March 1989 | 5 March 2002 | 13 August 2005 | 12 years, 346 days | 3 years, 162 days | 16 years, 143 days | 17th CJ of Gujarat HC | |
| 7 | Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar | 15 June 1992 | 27 August 2004 | 29 June 2008 | 12 years, 73 days | 3 years, 308 days | 16 years, 15 days | 28th CJ of Gauhati HC | |
| 8 | Deepak Verma | 15 December 1994 | 11 May 2009 | 28 August 2012 | 14 years, 147 days | 3 years, 110 days | 17 years, 258 days | 28th CJ of Rajasthan HC | |
| 9 | Arun Kumar Mishra | | 25 October 1999 | 7 July 2014 | 2 September 2020 | 14 years, 255 days | 6 years, 58 days | 20 years, 314 days | 36th CJ of Calcutta HC |
| 10 | Abhay Manohar Sapre | | 13 August 2014 | 27 August 2019 | 14 years, 292 days | 5 years, 15 days | 19 years, 307 days | 33rd CJ of Gauhati HC | |
| 11 | Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari | | 25 November 2005 | 31 August 2021 | Incumbent | 15 years, 279 days | 4 years, 141 days | 20 years, 55 days | 22nd CJ of Sikkim HC |
| 12 | Satish Chandra Sharma | | 18 January 2008 | 9 November 2023 | 15 years, 295 days | 2 years, 71 days | 18 years, 1 day | 32nd CJ of Delhi HC | |
| 13 | Alok Aradhe | | 29 December 2009 | 29 August 2025 | 15 years, 243 days | 143 days | 16 years, 21 days | 48th CJ of Bombay HC | |
| # | Name of the Judge | Image | Date of Appointment | Date of Retirement | Tenure | Immediately preceding office | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In Parent High Court | In Supreme Court | In High Court(s) | In Supreme Court | Total tenure [a] | |||||
| 1 | Vivian Bose | 9 January 1936 | 5 March 1951 | 8 June 1956 | 15 years, 55 days | 5 years, 96 days | 20 years, 152 days | CJ in same High Court | |
| 2 | Mohammad Hidayatullah | | 27 June 1946 | 1 December 1958 | 16 December 1970 | 12 years, 157 days | 12 years, 16 days | 24 years, 173 days | 1st CJ of Madhya Pradesh HC |
| 3 | Janardan Raghunath Mudholkar | 11 November 1948 | 3 October 1960 | 3 July 1966 [RES] | 11 years, 327 days | 5 years, 274 days | 17 years, 235 days | Judge of Bombay HC | |