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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A total of 51 chief justices have served in the office since the Supreme Court of India superseded the Federal Court of India in 1950.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 51st chief justice is Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who entered office on 11 November 2024. He will have a term of 6 months which is due to end on 13 May 2025.

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.

Chief Justices of the Federal Court of India

No.	Name (birth–death)	Image	Start of Term	End of Term	Length of term	Parent Bar / High Court	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
—	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

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)		4 January 2017	27 August 2017	235 days	Punjab and Haryana
45	Dipak Misra (born 1953)		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	10 November 2024	2 years, 1 day	Bombay
51	Sanjiv Khanna (born 1960)		11 November 2024	Incumbent	38 days	Delhi

1. Also served as acting President of India and Vice President of India

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

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