The Chief Justice of India is the head of the judiciary system in India. The chief justice is the head of the Supreme Court and is responsible for the allocation of cases and appointment of constitutional benches which deal with important matters of law.
The Constitution of India grants plenary power to the President of India to nominate and with the advice and consent of the Parliament of India, appoint a chief justice, who serves until they reach the age of sixty-five, resign, retire, is impeached and convicted, or die.
Article 145 of the Constitution gives the right to the Chief Justice of India to allocate the respective matters of relevance to the bench of judges. On the administrative side, the chief justice carries out the following functions: maintenance of the roster; appointment of court officials and general and miscellaneous matters relating to the supervision and functioning of the Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice of India is appointed by the President of India on the basis of nomination by other judges of the supreme court.
List of Chief Justices of India
There have been 50 Chief justices in India to date. Justice H J Kania served as the First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. The list of Chief Justices of India is given below:
S.No.
Chief Justice of India
Tenure
1.
Justice H.J. Kania
26 January 1950 – 6 November 1951
2.
Justice M. Patanjali Sastri
7 November 1951 – 3 January 1954
3.
Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan
4 January 1954 – 22 December 1954
4.
Justice Bijan Kumar Mukherjea
23 December 1954 – 31 January 1956
5.
Justice Sudhi Ranjan Das
1 February 1956 – 30 September 1959
6.
Justice Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha
1 October 1959 – 31 January 1964
7.
Justice P.B. Gajendragadkar
1 February 1964 – 15 March 1966
8.
Justice Amal Kumar Sarkar
16 March 1966 – 29 June 1966
9.
Justice K. Subba Rao
30 June 1966 – 11 April 1967
10.
Justice Kailas Nath Wanchoo
12 April 1967 – 24 February 1968
11.
Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah
25 February 1968 – 16 December 1970
12.
Justice J.C. Shah
17 December 1970 – 21 January 1971
13.
Justice S.M. Sikri
22 January 1971 – 25 April 1973
14.
Justice A.N. Ray
26 April 1973 – 27 January 1977
15.
Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg
29 January 1977 – 21 February 1978
16.
Justice Y.V. Chandrachud
22 February 1978 – 11 July 1985
17.
Justice P.N. Bhagwati
12 July 1985 – 20 December 1986
18.
Justice Raghunandan Swarup Pathak
21 December 1986 – 18 June 1989
19.
Justice E.S. Venkataramiah
19 June 1989 – 17 December 1989
20.
Justice Sabyasachi Mukharji
18 December 1989 – 25 September 1990
21.
Justice Ranganath Mishra
26 September 1990 – 24 November 1991
22.
Justice Kamal Narain Singh
25 November 1991 – 12 December 1991
23.
Justice M.H. Kania
13 December 1991 – 17 November 1992
24.
Justice Lalit Mohan Sharma
18 November 1992 – 11 February 1993
25.
Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah
12 February 1993 – 24 October 1994
26.
Justice A.M. Ahmadi
25 October 1994 – 24 March 1997
27.
Justice J.S. Verma
25 March 1997 – 17 January 1998
28.
Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi
18 January 1998 – 9 October 1009
29.
Justice Adarsh Sein Anand
10 October 1998 – 31 October 2001
30.
Justice Sam Piroj Barucha
1 November 2001 – 5 May 2002
31.
Justice B.N. Kirpal
6 May 2002 – 7 November 2002
32.
Justice G.B. Pattanaik
8 November 2002 – 18 December 2002
33.
Justice V.N. Khare
19 December 2002 – 1 May 2004
34.
Justice S. Rajendra Babu
2 May 2004 – 31 May 2004
35.
Justice Ramesh Chandra Lahoti
1 June 2004 – 31 October 2005
36.
Justice Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal
1 November 2005 – 13 January 2007
37.
Justice K.G. Balakrishnan
14 January 2007 – 12 May 2010
38.
Justice S.H. Kapadia
12 May 2010 – 28 September 2012
39.
Justice Altamas Kabir
29 September 2012 – 18 July 2013
40.
Justice P. Sathasivam
19 July 2013 – 26 April 2014
41.
Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha
27 April 2014 – 27 September 2014
42.
Justice H.L. Dattu
28 September 2014 – 2 December 2015
43.
Justice T.S. Thakur
3 December 2015 – 3 January 2017
44.
Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar
4 January 2017 – 27 August 2017
45.
Justice Dipak Mishra
28 August 2017 – 2 October 2018
46.
Justice Ranjan Gogoi
3 October 2018 – 17 November 2019
47.
Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde
18 November 2019 – 23 April 2021
48.
24 April 2021 – 26 August 2022
49.
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit
27 August 2022 – 08 November 2022
50.
09 November 2022 – 10 November 2024
