Justice Mamidanna Satya Ratna Sri Ramachandra Rao was sworn in as the 28th Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court here on Tuesday.

Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla administered the oath of office to Justice Rao at an impressive ceremony at the Raj Bhawan in the presence of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena conducted the proceedings of the oath ceremony and read out the Warrant of Appointment issued by the President of India both in Hindi and English, a statement issued here said.

Son of former Supreme Court judge Justice M Jagannadha Rao, who also served as Chairman of the Law Commission of India, Justice Rao was enrolled as an Advocate in September 1989 and later secured LL.M. degree from the University of Cambridge UK in 1991.  He was awarded the Cambridge CommonWealth Scholarship and the Bank of Credit and Commerce International Scholarship for the study of the LL.M course. He was also awarded the Pegasus Scholarship by the Scholarship Trust, London.

Justice M S Ramachandra Rao was elevated as Judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in June 2012 and was appointed to perform the duties of the office of the Chief Justice for the State of Telangana from August 31, 2021. He also served as a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court as well.

His grandfather was also a judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh from 1960-1961.  After being administered oath, the new chief justice was accorded “full court welcome at the High Court”.