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.^[1] 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.^[2]

A new chief justice is appointed by the president of India with recommendations by the outgoing chief justice in consultation with other judges.^[3] The chief justice serves in the role until they reach the age of sixty-five or are removed by the constitutional process of impeachment.^[2] As per convention, the name suggested by the incumbent chief justice is almost always the next senior-most judge in the Supreme Court. However this convention has been broken twice. In 1973, Justice A. N. Ray was appointed superseding three senior judges. Also, in 1977 Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg was appointed as the chief justice superseding Justice Hans Raj Khanna.^[4]

A total of 50 Chief Justices of India have served in the office since the Supreme Court of India superseded the Federal Court of India in 1950.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.^[5][6]

List of Chief Justices of the Federal Court of India

The Federal Court of India came into being on 1 October 1937.^[7] The seat of the court was in Delhi^[8] and it functioned until the establishment of the Supreme Court of India on 28 January 1950. The first chief justice was Sir Maurice Gwyer.

Chief Justices of the Federal Court of India

No.	Name (birth–death)	Image	Start of Term	End of Term	Length of term	Bar	Appointed by (Governor-General of India)	Ref.
1	Sir Maurice Linford Gwyer (1878–1952)		1 October 1937	25 April 1943	5 years, 206 days	Inner Temple	Victor Hope	[9]
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	[10]

List of Chief Justices of India

No.	Name (birth–death)	Image	Date appointed as judge	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	26 January 1950	6 November 1951†	1 year, 284 days	Bombay	Rajendra Prasad	[11]
2	Mandakolathur Patanjali Sastri (1889–1963)		26 January 1950	7 November 1951	3 January 1954	2 years, 57 days	Madras		[12]
3	Mehr Chand Mahajan (1889–1967)		26 January 1950	4 January 1954	22 December 1954	352 days	Lahore		[13]
4	Bijan Kumar Mukherjea (1891–1956)		26 January 1950	23 December 1954	31 January 1956‡	1 year, 39 days	Calcutta		[14]
5	Sudhi Ranjan Das (1894–1977)		26 January 1950	1 February 1956	30 September 1959	3 years, 241 days	Calcutta		[15]
6	Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha (1899–1986)		3 December 1954	1 October 1959	31 January 1964	4 years, 122 days	Patna		[16]
7	Pralhad Balacharya Gajendragadkar (1901–1981)		17 January 1957	1 February 1964	15 March 1966	2 years, 42 days	Bombay	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	[17]
8	Amal Kumar Sarkar (1901–2001)		3 April 1957	16 March 1966	29 June 1966	105 days	Calcutta		[18]
9	Koka Subba Rao (1902–1976)		31 January 1958	30 June 1966	11 April 1967‡	285 days	Hyderabad		[19]
10	Kailas Nath Wanchoo (1903–1988)		8 November 1958	12 April 1967	24 February 1968	318 days	Allahabad		[20]
11	Mohammad Hidayatullah (1905–1992)[a]		1 December 1958	25 February 1968	16 December 1970	2 years, 294 days	Bombay	Zakir Husain	[21]
12	Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah (1906–1991)		10 December 1959	17 December 1970	21 January 1971	35 days	Bombay	V. V. Giri	[22]
13	Sarv Mittra Sikri (1908–1992)		2 March 1964	22 January 1971	25 April 1973	2 years, 93 days	Bar Council		[23]
14	Ajit Nath Ray (1912–2009)		8 January 1969	26 April 1973	28 January 1977	3 years, 276 days	Calcutta		[24]
15	Mirza Hameedullah Beg (1913–1988)		12 December 1971	29 January 1977	21 February 1978	1 year, 24 days	Allahabad	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed	[25]
16	Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud (1920–2008)		28 August 1972	22 February 1978	11 July 1985	7 years, 139 days	Bombay	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy	[26]
17	Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati (1921–2017)		17 July 1973	12 July 1985	20 December 1986	1 year, 161 days	Gujarat	Zail Singh	[27]
18	Raghunandan Swarup Pathak (1924–2007)		20 February 1978	21 December 1986	18 June 1989‡	2 years, 209 days	Allahabad		[28]
19	Engalaguppe Seetharamiah Venkataramiah (1924–1997)		8 March 1979	19 June 1989	17 December 1989	181 days	Karnataka	Ramaswamy Venkataraman	[29]
20	Sabyasachi Mukharji (1927–1990)		15 March 1983	18 December 1989	25 September 1990†	281 days	Calcutta		[30]
21	Ranganath Misra (1926–2012)		15 March 1983	26 September 1990	24 November 1991	1 year, 59 days	Orissa		[31]
22	Kamal Narain Singh (1926–2022)		3 October 1986	25 November 1991	12 December 1991	17 days	Allahabad		[32]
23	Madhukar Hiralal Kania (1927–2016)		5 January 1987	13 December 1991	17 November 1992	340 days	Bombay		[33]
24	Lalit Mohan Sharma (1928–2008)		10 May 1987	18 November 1992	11 February 1993	85 days	Patna	Shankar Dayal Sharma	[34]
25	Manepalli Narayanarao Venkatachaliah (born 1929)		10 May 1987	12 February 1993	24 October 1994	1 year, 254 days	Karnataka		[35]
26	Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi (1932–2023)		14 December 1988	25 October 1994	24 March 1997	2 years, 150 days	Gujarat		[36]
27	Jagdish Sharan Verma (1933–2013)		6 March 1989	25 March 1997	17 January 1998	298 days	Madhya Pradesh		[37]
28	Madan Mohan Punchhi (1933–2015)		10 June 1989	18 January 1998	9 October 1998	264 days	Punjab and Haryana	K. R. Narayanan	[38]
29	Adarsh Sein Anand (1936–2017)		18 November 1991	10 October 1998	31 October 2001	3 years, 21 days	Jammu and Kashmir		[39]
30	Sam Piroj Bharucha (born 1937)		7 January 1992	1 November 2001	5 May 2002	185 days	Bombay		[40]
31	Bhupinder Nath Kirpal (born 1937)		9 November 1995	6 May 2002	7 November 2002	185 days	Delhi		[41]
32	Gopal Ballav Pattanaik (born 1937)		9 November 1995	8 November 2002	18 December 2002	40 days	Orissa	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam	[42]
33	Vishweshwar Nath Khare (born 1939)		21 March 1997	19 December 2002	1 May 2004	1 year, 134 days	Allahabad		[43]
34	S. Rajendra Babu (born 1939)		25 September 1997	2 May 2004	31 May 2004	29 days	Karnataka		[44]
35	Ramesh Chandra Lahoti (1940–2022)		12 September 1998	1 June 2004	31 October 2005	1 year, 152 days	Madhya Pradesh		[45]
36	Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal (1942–2015)		28 January 2000	1 November 2005	13 January 2007	1 year, 73 days	Delhi		[46]
37	Konakuppakatil Gopinathan Balakrishnan (born 1945)		6 August 2000	14 January 2007	11 May 2010	3 years, 117 days	Kerala		[47]
38	Sarosh Homi Kapadia (1947–2016)		18 December 2003	12 May 2010	28 September 2012	2 years, 139 days	Bombay	Pratibha Patil	[48]
39	Altamas Kabir (1948–2017)		9 September 2005	29 September 2012	18 July 2013	292 days	Calcutta	Pranab Mukherjee	[49]
40	Palanisamy Sathasivam (born 1949)		21 August 2007	19 July 2013	26 April 2014	281 days	Madras		[50]
41	Rajendra Mal Lodha (born 1949)		17 December 2008	27 April 2014	27 September 2014	153 days	Rajasthan		[51]
42	Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu (born 1950)		17 December 2008	28 September 2014	2 December 2015	1 year, 65 days	Karnataka		[52]
43	Tirath Singh Thakur (born 1952)		17 November 2009	3 December 2015	3 January 2017	1 year, 31 days	Jammu and Kashmir		[53]
44	Jagdish Singh Khehar (born 1952)		13 September 2011	4 January 2017	27 August 2017	235 days	Punjab and Haryana		[54]
45	Dipak Misra (born 1953)		10 October 2011	28 August 2017	2 October 2018	1 year, 35 days	Orissa	Ram Nath Kovind	[55]
46	Ranjan Gogoi (born 1954)		23 April 2012	3 October 2018	17 November 2019	1 year, 45 days	Gauhati		[56]
47	Sharad Arvind Bobde (born 1956)		12 April 2013	18 November 2019[57]	23 April 2021	1 year, 156 days	Bombay		[58]
48	Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana (born 1957)		17 February 2014	24 April 2021	26 August 2022	1 year, 124 days	Andhra Pradesh		[59]
49	Uday Umesh Lalit (born 1957)		13 August 2014	27 August 2022	8 November 2022	73 days	Bar Council	Droupadi Murmu	[60]
50	Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud (born 1959)		13 May 2016	9 November 2022	Incumbent	1 year, 165 days	Bombay		[61]

See also

• List of current Indian chief justices
• List of sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India
• List of female judges of the Supreme Court of India
• List of former judges of the Supreme Court of India

References