The High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, formerly the High Commissioner of India to Ceylon, is the chief diplomatic representative of India to Sri Lanka. The high commission is located in Colombo.
History
India's diplomatic mission to the Dominion of Ceylon was created following India's independence in 1947. Since both nations became part of the Commonwealth of Nations, the diplomatic mission was designated as a high commission, rather than an embassy. V. V. Giri was appointed as the inaugural high commissioner by Governor-General Lord Mountbatten and remained in office until 1951.
Following Ceylon's becoming a republic in 1972, the mission was re-designated to Sri Lanka and the position was renamed to as the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka.
List Ref:
Portrait Name Took office Left office Appointer (Head of state) Notes 1 V. V. Giri 1947 1951 Lord Mountbatten Later President of India (19691974) 2 K. P. Kesava Menon 1951 1952 Rajendra Prasad 3 Chandulal Chunilal Desai 1953 1954 Later Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha (19671973) 4 Birendra Narayan Chakraborty, 1955 1956 Later Governor of Haryana (19671976) 5 Y. D. Gundevia, 1957 1960 First term; later Foreign Secretary (19631965) 6 B. K. Kapur, 1960 1964 7 Bhim Sen Sachar 1964 1967 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Formerly Chief Minister of Punjab (1949; 19521956);Governor of Orissa (19561957) and Andhra Pradesh (19571962) (5) Y. D. Gundevia, 1967 1969 Second term; formerly Foreign Secretary 8 Yogendra Krishna Puri, 1969 1972 V. V. Giri 9 V. C. Coelho, 1973 1975 10 Gurbachan Singh, 1975 1978 Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed 11 Thomas Abraham, 1978 1982 Neelam Sanjiva Reddy 12 Surbir Jit Singh Chhatwal, 1982 1985 Zail Singh 13 Jyotindra Nath Dixit, 1985 1989 Later Foreign Secretary (19911994); andNational Security Advisor (20042005) 14 Lakhan Lal Mehrotra, 1989 1990 Ramaswamy Venkataraman 15 Nagendra Nath Jha, 1990 1993 Later Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (20012004); andLieutenant Governor of Pondicherry (2004) 16 Nareshwar Dayal, 1993 1997 Shankar Dayal Sharma 17 Shivshankar Menon, 1997 2000 K. R. Narayanan Later Foreign Secretary (20062009); andNational Security Advisor (20102014) 18 Gopalkrishna Gandhi, 2000 2002 Formerly Secretary to the President of India (1997–2000); andlater Governor of West Bengal (20042009) 19 Nirupem Sen, 2002 2004 20 Nirupama Rao, 2004 2006 A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Later Foreign Secretary (20092011) 21 Alok Prasad, 2006 2009 Later Deputy National Security Advisor (20092011) 22 Ashok Kantha, 2009 2013 Pratibha Patil 23 Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, 2013 2016 Pranab Mukherjee Later Chief Information Commissioner (20202023) 24 Taranjit Singh Sandhu, 2017 2020 25 Gopal Bagalay, 2020 2023 Ram Nath Kovind 26 Santosh Jha, 2023 Incumbent Droupadi Murmu
References