The Chief Justice of HP High Court Mr. Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir retiring on superannuation on 24th April, 2017 had assumed the office of the Chief Justice of HP High Court on 27 November, 2013. During his tenure in Himachal Pradesh, he had pronounced many landmark judgments in cases affecting large section of the society and the State as a whole.During his tenure in the High Court, he made relentless efforts to bring down pendency of cases in the Court. Due to his sustained efforts, pendency of cases in H.P. High Court came down from 59133 to 29800 whereas the pendency of five years old cases came to 6735 from 10135 during his tenure.During his tenure in HP High Court, he had disposed off as many as 35710 cases, including 3196 in a Single Bench. Compensation of Rs. 72 crore had been awarded under Motor Vehicles Act whereas Rs. 10-15 crore under Land Acquisition Act.In the period from March 2012 to April, 2017, as many as 25 Lok Adalats were organized in HP High Court wherein 2382 cases were taken up and 390 were settled. Mediation system was given special consideration where 6996 cases were referred for mediation throughout the State, out of which 1638 were settled.He made 367 appointments and promotions of different categories in the Registry in his tenure.
Besides this, CCTV cameras and solar power plant were also installed saving expenditure on electricity, digitization of judicial record was given importance with installation of SAN storage device costing Rs. 27.50 lakh. A provision of Rs. 41.41 lakh was made for replacement of existing digital display system with latest technology.E-Courts fee system was introduced and Video Conferencing facility had been made operational in all eleven Headquarters of Civil and Session Divisions in the State. Mobile App for High Court with many features like case status, search facility, filtering reportable and unreportable judgments was launched for the facility of litigants and the members of the Bar.To improve the quality of legal education in the State, HP National Law University was set up and started running.
The complex of this University would come up at Ghandal in Shimla District for which budget provision had already been made.A Gymnasium is being set up in High Court with a cost of Rs. 50 lakh.The Subordinate Judiciary in the State had disposal off 1118428 cases from January, 2014 to March 2017 besides disposing off 3.21 lakh cases in the Lok Adalats organized throughout the State. HP Judicial Academy Campus Phase-1 was near completion and Hostel Block had already been inaugurated. Rs. 51.78 crore had been transferred to Public Works Department. The Academy conducted 188 training programmes in which 3934 Officers were imparted training. Besides above, the HP Judiciary was also involved in conservation and protection of environment where nearly 8 lakh plants were planted in the State through school students. Drug Menace Scheme was implemented in letter and spirit. 5107 Legal Literacy camps were organized in which 338670 persons were benefited.