The Uttarakhand High Court is the High Court of the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. The building of Uttarakhand High Court was constructed by Santoni MacDonald in 1900. The Uttarakhand State was carved out from the State of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 195 ...

on 9 November 2000 under the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000. At the time of the creation of the State, the High Court of Uttarakhand was also established on the same day at

Nainital Nainital ( Kumaoni: ''Naintāl''; ) is a city and headquarters of Nainital district of Kumaon division, Uttarakhand, India. It is the judicial capital of Uttarakhand, the High Court of the state being located there and is the headquarters o ...

. The sanctioned judge strength at the time of creation in 2000 was 7; this was increased to 9 in 2003. Justice Ashok Desai was the inaugural holder of the office. Former Chief Justices of Uttarakhand Sarosh Homi Kapadia and Jagdish Singh Khehar later went on to become

Chief Justice of India The chief justice of India ( IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation ...

Vipin Sanghi Vipin Sanghi (born 27 October 1961) is an Indian Judge. Presently, he is Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court. He is former Judge of Delhi High Court. He has also served as Acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court. Career He was born on 27 ...

is the current Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court. He assumed office on 28 June 2022.

List of sitting judges of the Uttarakhand High Court

There are currently seven sitting judges including the Chief Justice, with four posts of judges lying vacant.Sitting judges of the Uttarakhand High Court
/ref> Following is the list of the current serving judges of the Uttarakhand High Court, ordered by seniority.

Registrar General

Vivek Bharti Sharma is the current Registrar General of the Uttarakhand High Court. He Assumed office on 4 April 2022.

Landmark judgements

Status of rivers as legal persons

In March 2017, Uttarakhand High Court mandated that the rivers

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

and

Yamuna The Yamuna ( Hindustani: ), also spelt Jumna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of about on the southwestern slopes of B ...

as well as all water bodies are "living entities" i.e. "

legal person In law, a legal person is any person or 'thing' (less ambiguously, any legal entity) that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason f ...

" and appointed 3 persons as trustees to protect the rights of rivers against the

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, th ...

caused by the humans.Birds to holy rivers: A list of everything India considers “legal persons”

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical f ...

, September 2019.

Rohit Sagar v. State of Uttarakhand

Rohit Sagar v. State of Uttarakhand (2021) is case where Uttarakhand High Court held that the legal adult have the fundamental right to choose their own partners and directed the Uttarakhand Police to provide necessary protection for the individuals and their property.

References

External links

The High Court of Uttarakhand, official website

{{Uttarakhand Government of Uttarakhand Nainital 2000 establishments in Uttarakhand Courts and tribunals established in 2000