Chief Justice of India inaugurates the Ladakh bench of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court at Leh

19 October 2026

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant inaugurated the newly constituted Ladakh bench of the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court at Leh on Sunday. Supreme Court judges M M Sundresh, P S Narasimha and Arun Palli and Attorney General for India R Venkataramani attended the function. Hearings at the Leh bench begin on October 21, when a division bench of Chief Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Justice Sanjay Parihar is to take up five cases. Justice Parihar will also sit as a single bench on Thursday and Friday. The High Court has identified 75 cases for listing before the Leh bench. The Union government approved the bench in August 2026 and the High Court chose Leh as its seat in Ladakh on October 5. Until now the High Court had only two benches, at Srinagar and Jammu.