Former Andhra Pradesh High Court judge Guhanathan Narender on Thursday became 14th chief justice of Uttarakhand high court. He succeeded first woman Chief Justice of the state Ritu Bahri who retired on October 24.

Governor, Lt. Gen Gurmeet Singh (retd) administered the oath of office to the newly appointed Chief Justice of the High Court Justice Guhanathan Narender at Raj Bhavan on Thursday following which he formally assumed office in Nainital.

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Chief Secretary Radha Raturi read out Memorandum of Procedure(MoP) issued by the President on the appointment of Justice Guhanathan Narender as Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court Nainital.

The January 1964 born Justice Guhanathan, a law graduate, carries experience of more than 25 years of practicing law since 1989 in Tamil Nadu. He practiced independently in Madras high court between 1996 and 2015 in almost all matters of varied fields pertaining to constitutional, civil, taxation, mining law, environmental and forest matters, arbitration, sugarcane area reservation and pricing issues, land reforms and host of other aspects of the public needs.

The new chief of Uttarakhand was appointed on January 2, 2015 as additional judge in the Karnataka High Court. He had been serving in the caacity of permanent judge since December 30, 2017. Justice Guhanathan served latter served as Andhra Pradesh High Court Judge before being recently appointed as the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, Nainital.

It’s notable that Justice Gunathan is the 14th chief justice of Uttarakhand high court starting with Justice Ashok Desai as first chief justice of the state in December 2000 with the formation of the Himalayan state. He succeeded first woman chief justice of the state Justice Ritu Bahri who retired in October 2024. Following retirement of Justice Bahari senior most Judge justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari functioned as acting chief justice of Uttarakhand high court till December 26, 2024.