List of Chief Justice of India from 1950-2024

Chief Justice of India

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) is the highest-ranking judge and head of the Indian judiciary, leading the Supreme Court of India. The CJI manages the court’s functioning by assigning cases to other judges and forming special benches for important legal issues. According to Article 145 of the Indian Constitution and the Supreme Court Rules of 1966, the Chief Justice has the authority to allocate work across the Supreme Court.

When it’s time to appoint a new Chief Justice, the President of India selects a candidate based on the recommendation of the outgoing CJI, who typically suggests the next senior-most judge. Although this seniority tradition is usually followed, there have been exceptions twice in the past—first in 1973, when Justice A.N. Ray was appointed over three senior judges, and again in 1977, when Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg was appointed over Justice H.R. Khanna.

A Chief Justice can serve until they reach the age of 65, unless they are removed through the impeachment process outlined in the Constitution. Since the establishment of the Supreme Court in 1950, 51 judges have held the position of Chief Justice. The longest-serving Chief Justice was Y.V. Chandrachud, who held office for over seven years (1978–1985), while the shortest-serving was K.N. Singh, who served only 17 days in 1991. As of 2024, there has not been a woman in the role of Chief Justice of India.

Currently, Justice Sanjiv Khanna is the 51st Chief Justice, having taken office on November 11, 2024. His term is set to last six months, concluding on May 13, 2025.

List of Chief Justice of India

The below list will give you details about all Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India after independence along with their tenure and the Presidents they have worked under. The current Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna who was appointed by the Government of India on 11th November 2024.

S.no	Chief Justice of India	Tenure		Presidents
		From	To
1	H.J Kania	26 January 1950	6 November 1951	Rajendra Prasad
2	M. Patanjali Sastri	7 November 1951	3 January 1954	Rajendra Prasad
3	Mehr Chand Mahajan	4 January 1954	22 December 1954	Rajendra Prasad
4	Bijan Kumar Mukherjee	23 December 1954	31 January 1956	Rajendra Prasad
5	Sudhi Ranjan Das	1 February 1956	30 September 1959	Rajendra Prasad
6	Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha	1 October 1959	31 January 1964	Rajendra Prasad
7	P.B. Gajendragadkar	1 February 1964	15 March 1966	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
8	Amal Kumar Sarkar	16 March 1966	29 June 1966	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
9	Koka Subba Rao	30 June 1966	11 April 1967	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
10	Kailas Nath Wanchoo	12 April 1967	24 February 1968	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
11	Mohammad Hidayatullah	25 February 1968	16 December 1970	Zakir Husain
12	Jayantital Chhotalal Shah	17 December 1970	21 January 1971	V.V. Giri
13	Sarv Mittra Sikri	22 January 1971	25 April 1973	V.V. Giri
14	A.N. Ray	26 April 1973	27 January 1977	V.V. Giri
15	Mirza Hameedullah Beg	29 January 1977	21 February 1978	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
16	Y.V. Chandrachud	22 February 1978	11 July 1985	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
17	P.N. Bhagwati	12 July 1985	20 December 1986	Zali Singh
18	Raghunandan Swarup Pathak	21 December 1986	18 June 1989	Zali Singh
19	Engalaguppe Seetharamaiah Venkataramiah	19 June 1989	17 December 1989	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
20	Sabyasachi Mukharji	18 December 1989	25 September 1990	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
21	Ranganath Misra	26 September 1990	24 November 1991	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
22	Kamal Narain Singh	25 November 1991	12 December 1991	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
23	Madhukar Hiralal Kania	13 December 1991	17 November 1992	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
24	Lalit Mohan Sharma	18 November 1992	11 February 1993	Shankar Dayal Sharma
25	M.N. Venkatachaliah	12 February 1993	24 October 1994	Shankar Dayal Sharma
26	Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi	25 October 1994	24 March 1997	Shankar Dayal Sharma
27	J.S. Verma	25 March 1997	17 January 1998	Shankar Dayal Sharma
28	Madan Mohan Punchhi	18 January 1998	9 October 1998	K.R. Narayanan
29	Adarsh Sein Anand	10 October 1998	31 October 2001	K.R. Narayanan
30	Sam Piroj Bharucha	1 November 2001	5 may 2002	K.R. Narayanan
31	Bhupinder Nath Kirpal	6 May 2002	7 November 2002	K.R. Narayanan
32	Gopal Ballav Pattanaik	8 November 2002	18 December 2002	A.P.J Abdul Kalam
33	V.N. Khare	19 December 2002	1 May 2004	A.P.J Abdul Kalam
34	S. Rajendra Babu	2 May 2004	31 May 2004	A.P.J Abdul Kalam
35	Ramesh Chandra Lahoti	1 June 2004	31 October 2005	A.P.J Abdul Kalam
36	Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal	1 November 2005	13 January 2007	A.P.J Abdul Kalam
37	K.G. Balakrishnan	14 January 2007	12 May 2010	A.P.J Abdul Kalam
38	S.H. Kapadia	12 May 2010	28 September 2012	Pratibha Patil
39	Altamas Kabir	29 September 2012	18 July 2013	Pranab Mukherjee
40	P. Sathasivam	19 July 2013	26 April 2014	Pranab Mukherjee
41	Rajendra Mal Lodha	27 April 2014	27 September 2014	Pranab Mukherjee
42	H.L. Dattu	28 September 2014	2 December 2015	Pranab Mukherjee
43	T.S. Thakur	3 December 2015	3 January 2017	Pranab Mukherjee
44	Jagdish Singh Khehar	4 January 2017	27 August 2017	Pranab Mukherjee
45	Dipak Misra	28 August 2017	2 October 2018	Ram Nath Kovind
46	Ranjan Gogoi	3 October 2018	17 November 2019	Ram Nath Kovind
47	Sharad Arvind Bobde	18 November 2019	23 April 2021	Ram Nath Kovind
48	NV Ramana	23 April 2021	26 August 2022	Ram Nath Kovind
49	U.U. Lalit	27 August 2022	8 November 2022	Ram Nath Kovind
50	Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud	9 November 2022	10 November 2024	Ram Nath Kovind
51	Sanjiv Khanna	11 November 2024	Incumbent	Droupadi Murmu

CJI – Important Pointer

• The President of India appoints the Chief Justice of India, who can serve until the age of 65 and can only be removed through parliamentary impeachment. The Chief Justice submits resignation to the President, who administers the oath. The Chief Justice receives a monthly salary of Rs.280,000, governed by Article 125 of the Constitution.
• The inaugural Chief Justice, Sir Maurice Gwyer, served from October 1, 1937, to April 25, 1943, before independence. Justice Harilal Jekisundas Kania became the first Indian Chief Justice. Kamal Narain Singh held the position for the briefest period, just 17 days in November-December 1991, while Justice Y. V. Chandrachud holds the record for the longest tenure at 2696 days.
• The current Chief Justice, Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, is the 47th in office. Fatimah Beevi made history as the first woman Supreme Court Judge, serving from October 6, 1989, to April 29, 1992.
• As of November 2022, India has 27 Supreme Court judges, including the Chief Justice, with a sanctioned strength of 34.