List Of Chief Justices Of India
The Chief Justice of India is the highest-ranking officer of the Indian judiciary and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India.
As head of the Supreme Court, the chief justice is responsible for the allocation of cases and appointment of constitutional benches which deal with important matters of law. In accordance with Article 145 of the Constitution of India and the Supreme Court Rules of Procedure of 1966, the chief justice allocates all work to the other judges.
A new chief justice is appointed by the president of India with recommendations by the outgoing chief justice in consultation with other judges. The chief justice serves in the role until they reach the age of sixty-five or are removed by the constitutional process of impeachment. As per convention, the name suggested by the incumbent chief justice is almost always the next senior-most judge in the Supreme Court. This convention has been broken twice: in 1973, Justice A. N. Ray was appointed superseding three senior judges and in 1977, Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg was appointed as the chief justice superseding Justice Hans Raj Khanna.
A total of 50 chief justices have served in the office since the Supreme Court of India superseded the Federal Court of India in 1950. Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud, the 16th chief justice, is the longest-serving chief justice, serving over seven years (February 1978 – July 1985), while Kamal Narain Singh, the 22nd chief justice, is the shortest-serving, for 17 days in 1991. As of 2024, there has been no woman who has served as chief justice of India. The current and 50th Chief Justice is Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, who entered office on 9 November 2022.
List of Chief Justices of the Federal Court of India
The Federal Court of India came into being on 1 October 1937. The seat of the court was in Delhi and it functioned until the establishment of the Supreme Court of India on 28 January 1950. The first chief justice was Sir Maurice Gwyer.
| ‡ | Acting Chief Justice |
| No. | Name (birth–death) | Image | Start of Term | End of Term | Length of term | Parent Bar / High Court | Appointed by | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sir Maurice Linford Gwyer (1878–1952) | .jpg) | 1 October 1937 | 25 April 1943 | 5 years, 206 days | Inner Temple | Victor Hope | |
| Acting | Sir Srinivas Varadachariar‡ (1881–1970) | 25 April 1943 | 7 June 1943 | 43 days | Madras | |||
| 2 | Sir William Patrick Spens (1885–1973) | 7 June 1943 | 13 August 1947 | 4 years, 68 days | Inner Temple | |||
| 3 | Harilal Jekisundas Kania (1890–1951) |  | 14 August 1947 | 26 January 1950 | 2 years, 165 days | Bombay | Louis Mountbatten |
List of Chief Justices of India
| † | Died in office |
| ‡ | Resigned |
| No. | Name (birth–death) | Image | Start of Term | End of Term | Length of Term | Parent High Court | Appointed by (President of India) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harilal Jekisundas Kania (1890–1951) | | 26 January 1950 | 6 November 1951† | 1 year, 284 days | Bombay | Rajendra Prasad | |
| 2 | Mandakolathur Patanjali Sastri (1889–1963) |  | 7 November 1951 | 3 January 1954 | 2 years, 57 days | Madras | ||
| 3 | Mehr Chand Mahajan (1889–1967) |  | 4 January 1954 | 22 December 1954 | 352 days | Lahore | ||
| 4 | Bijan Kumar Mukherjea (1891–1956) |  | 23 December 1954 | 31 January 1956‡ | 1 year, 39 days | Calcutta | ||
| 5 | Sudhi Ranjan Das (1894–1977) |  | 1 February 1956 | 30 September 1959 | 3 years, 241 days | Calcutta | ||
| 6 | Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha (1899–1986) |  | 1 October 1959 | 31 January 1964 | 4 years, 122 days | Patna | ||
| 7 | Pralhad Balacharya Gajendragadkar (1901–1981) |  | 1 February 1964 | 15 March 1966 | 2 years, 42 days | Bombay | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | |
| 8 | Amal Kumar Sarkar (1901–2001) |  | 16 March 1966 | 29 June 1966 | 105 days | Calcutta | ||
| 9 | Koka Subba Rao (1902–1976) |  | 30 June 1966 | 11 April 1967‡ | 285 days | Hyderabad | ||
| 10 | Kailas Nath Wanchoo (1903–1988) |  | 12 April 1967 | 24 February 1968 | 318 days | Allahabad | ||
| 11 | Mohammad Hidayatullah (1905–1992) |  | 25 February 1968 | 16 December 1970 | 2 years, 294 days | Bombay | Zakir Hussain | |
| 12 | Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah (1906–1991) |  | 17 December 1970 | 21 January 1971 | 35 days | Bombay | V. V. Giri | |
| 13 | Sarv Mittra Sikri (1908–1992) |  | 22 January 1971 | 25 April 1973 | 2 years, 93 days | Bar Council | ||
| 14 | Ajit Nath Ray (1912–2009) |  | 26 April 1973 | 28 January 1977 | 3 years, 276 days | Calcutta | ||
| 15 | Mirza Hameedullah Beg (1913–1988) |  | 29 January 1977 | 21 February 1978 | 1 year, 24 days | Allahabad | Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed | |
| 16 | Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud (1920–2008) |  | 22 February 1978 | 11 July 1985 | 7 years, 139 days | Bombay | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy | |
| 17 | Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati (1921–2017) |  | 12 July 1985 | 20 December 1986 | 1 year, 161 days | Gujarat | Zail Singh | |
| 18 | Raghunandan Swarup Pathak (1924–2007) |  | 21 December 1986 | 18 June 1989‡ | 2 years, 209 days | Allahabad | ||
| 19 | Engalaguppe Seetharamiah Venkataramiah (1924–1997) |  | 19 June 1989 | 17 December 1989 | 181 days | Karnataka | Ramaswamy Venkataraman | |
| 20 | Sabyasachi Mukharji (1927–1990) |  | 18 December 1989 | 25 September 1990† | 281 days | Calcutta | ||
| 21 | Ranganath Misra (1926–2012) |  | 26 September 1990 | 24 November 1991 | 1 year, 59 days | Orissa | ||
| 22 | Kamal Narain Singh (1926–2022) |  | 25 November 1991 | 12 December 1991 | 17 days | Allahabad | ||
| 23 | Madhukar Hiralal Kania (1927–2016) |  | 13 December 1991 | 17 November 1992 | 340 days | Bombay | ||
| 24 | Lalit Mohan Sharma (1928–2008) |  | 18 November 1992 | 11 February 1993 | 85 days | Patna | Shankar Dayal Sharma | |
| 25 | Manepalli Narayanarao Venkatachaliah (born 1929) |  | 12 February 1993 | 24 October 1994 | 1 year, 254 days | Karnataka | ||
| 26 | Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi (1932–2023) |  | 25 October 1994 | 24 March 1997 | 2 years, 150 days | Gujarat | ||
| 27 | Jagdish Sharan Verma (1933–2013) |  | 25 March 1997 | 17 January 1998 | 298 days | Madhya Pradesh | ||
| 28 | Madan Mohan Punchhi (1933–2015) |  | 18 January 1998 | 9 October 1998 | 264 days | Punjab and Haryana | K. R. Narayanan | |
| 29 | Adarsh Sein Anand (1936–2017) |  | 10 October 1998 | 31 October 2001 | 3 years, 21 days | Jammu and Kashmir | ||
| 30 | Sam Piroj Bharucha (born 1937) |  | 1 November 2001 | 5 May 2002 | 185 days | Bombay | ||
| 31 | Bhupinder Nath Kirpal (born 1937) |  | 6 May 2002 | 7 November 2002 | 185 days | Delhi | ||
| 32 | Gopal Ballav Pattanaik (born 1937) |  | 8 November 2002 | 18 December 2002 | 40 days | Orissa | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam | |
| 33 | Vishweshwar Nath Khare (born 1939) |  | 19 December 2002 | 1 May 2004 | 1 year, 134 days | Allahabad | ||
| 34 | S. Rajendra Babu (born 1939) |  | 2 May 2004 | 31 May 2004 | 29 days | Karnataka | ||
| 35 | Ramesh Chandra Lahoti (1940–2022) |  | 1 June 2004 | 31 October 2005 | 1 year, 152 days | Madhya Pradesh | ||
| 36 | Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal (1942–2015) |  | 1 November 2005 | 13 January 2007 | 1 year, 73 days | Delhi | ||
| 37 | Konakuppakatil Gopinathan Balakrishnan (born 1945) |  | 14 January 2007 | 11 May 2010 | 3 years, 117 days | Kerala | ||
| 38 | Sarosh Homi Kapadia (1947–2016) |  | 12 May 2010 | 28 September 2012 | 2 years, 139 days | Bombay | Pratibha Patil | |
| 39 | Altamas Kabir (1948–2017) |  | 29 September 2012 | 18 July 2013 | 292 days | Calcutta | Pranab Mukherjee | |
| 40 | Palanisamy Sathasivam (born 1949) |  | 19 July 2013 | 26 April 2014 | 281 days | Madras | ||
| 41 | Rajendra Mal Lodha (born 1949) |  | 27 April 2014 | 27 September 2014 | 153 days | Rajasthan | ||
| 42 | Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu (born 1950) |  | 28 September 2014 | 2 December 2015 | 1 year, 65 days | Karnataka | ||
| 43 | Tirath Singh Thakur (born 1952) |  | 3 December 2015 | 3 January 2017 | 1 year, 31 days | Jammu and Kashmir | ||
| 44 | Jagdish Singh Khehar (born 1952) | .jpg) | 4 January 2017 | 27 August 2017 | 235 days | Punjab and Haryana | ||
| 45 | Dipak Misra (born 1953) | ,_in_New_Delhi_on_October_12,_2017_(cropped).jpg) | 28 August 2017 | 2 October 2018 | 1 year, 35 days | Orissa | Ram Nath Kovind | |
| 46 | Ranjan Gogoi (born 1954) |  | 3 October 2018 | 17 November 2019 | 1 year, 45 days | Gauhati | ||
| 47 | Sharad Arvind Bobde (born 1956) |  | 18 November 2019 | 23 April 2021 | 1 year, 156 days | Bombay | ||
| 48 | Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana (born 1957) |  | 24 April 2021 | 26 August 2022 | 1 year, 124 days | Andhra Pradesh | ||
| 49 | Uday Umesh Lalit (born 1957) |  | 27 August 2022 | 8 November 2022 | 73 days | Bar Council | Droupadi Murmu | |
| 50 | Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud (born 1959) |  | 9 November 2022 | Incumbent | 1 year, 171 days | Bombay |
See also
References
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