List of chief justices of India

This is a list of all Chief Justices of India (CJI). There are a total of 48 Chief Justices of India that have served since the establishment of the Supreme Court of India in 1950, which superseded the Federal Court of India. The current Incumbent and 48th Chief Justice of India is Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana, who entered office on 24 April 2021.

The Supreme Court of India

Precursor

Federal Court of India (1937–50)

The Federal Court of India came into being on 1 October 1937. The seat of the court was the Chamber of Princes in the Parliament building in Delhi. It began with a Chief Justice and two puisne judges. The first Chief Justice was Sir Maurice Gwyer and the other two judges were Sir S. M. Sulaiman and M. R. Jayakar. It functioned until the establishment of the Supreme Court of India on 28 January 1950.

  Acting Chief Justice

No.	Image	Name (birth–death)	Period of office		Length of term	Bar	Appointed by (Governor-General of India)
1		Sir Maurice Linford Gwyer (1878–1952)	1 October 1937	25 April 1943‡	5 years, 206 days	Inner Temple	The Marquess of Linlithgow
Acting		Sir Srinivas Varadachariar	25 April 1943	7 June 1943	43 days	Madras High Court
2		Sir William Patrick Spens (1885–1973)	7 June 1943	14 August 1947	4 years, 68 days	Inner Temple
3		Sir Harilal Jekisundas Kania (1890–1951)	14 August 1947	26 January 1950	2 years, 165 days	Bombay High Court	The Viscount Mountbatten of Burma

List of Chief Justices of India

Supreme Court of India (1950–present)

Since the birth of the Republic of India on 26 January 1950, 47 judges have served as the Chief Justice of India (CJI). H. J. Kania was the inaugural CJI. The current incumbent is N. V. Ramana who took office of Chief Justice of India on 24 April 2021.

No.	Image	Name (birth–death)	Period of office		Length of term	Bar	Appointed by (President of India)
1		Harilal Jekisundas Kania (1890–1951)	26 January 1950	6 November 1951†	1 year, 284 days	Bombay High Court	Rajendra Prasad
2		Mandakolathur Patanjali Sastri (1889–1963)	7 November 1951	3 January 1954	2 years, 57 days	Madras High Court
3		Mehr Chand Mahajan (1889–1967)	4 January 1954	22 December 1954	352 days	Lahore High Court
4		Bijan Kumar Mukherjea (1891–1956)	23 December 1954	31 January 1956‡	1 year, 39 days	Calcutta High Court
5		Sudhi Ranjan Das (1894–1977)	1 February 1956	30 September 1959	3 years, 241 days	Calcutta High Court
6		Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha (1899–1986)	1 October 1959	31 January 1964	4 years, 122 days	Patna High Court
7		Pralhad Balacharya Gajendragadkar (1901–1981)	1 February 1964	15 March 1966	2 years, 42 days	Bombay High Court	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
8		Amal Kumar Sarkar (1901–2001)	16 March 1966	29 June 1966	105 days	Calcutta High Court
9		Koka Subba Rao (1902–1976)	30 June 1966	11 April 1967‡	285 days	Madras High Court
10		Kailas Nath Wanchoo (1903–1988)	12 April 1967	24 February 1968	318 days	Allahabad High Court
11		Mohammad Hidayatullah (1905–1992)	25 February 1968	16 December 1970	2 years, 294 days	Bombay High Court	Zakir Husain
12		Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah (1906–1991)	17 December 1970	21 January 1971	35 days	Bombay High Court	V. V. Giri
13		Sarv Mittra Sikri (1908–1992)	22 January 1971	25 April 1973	2 years, 93 days	Lahore High Court
14		Ajit Nath Ray (1912–2009)	26 April 1973	27 January 1977	3 years, 276 days	Calcutta High Court
15		Mirza Hameedullah Beg (1913–1988)	29 January 1977	21 February 1978	1 year, 24 days	Allahabad High Court	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
16		Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud (1920–2008)	22 February 1978	11 July 1985	7 years, 139 days	Bombay High Court	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
17		Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati (1921–2017)	12 July 1985	20 December 1986	1 year, 161 days	Gujarat High Court	Zail Singh
18		Raghunandan Swarup Pathak (1924–2007)	21 December 1986	18 June 1989‡	2 years, 209 days	Allahabad High Court
19		E. S. Venkataramiah (1924–1997)	19 June 1989	17 December 1989	181 days	Karnataka High Court	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
20		Sabyasachi Mukharji (1927–1990)	18 December 1989	25 September 1990†	281 days	Calcutta High Court
21		Ranganath Misra (1926–2012)	26 September 1990	24 November 1991	1 year, 59 days	Orissa High Court
22		Kamal Narain Singh (1926–)	25 November 1991	12 December 1991	17 days	Allahabad High Court
23		Madhukar Hiralal Kania (1927–2016)	13 December 1991	17 November 1992	340 days	Bombay High Court
24		Lalit Mohan Sharma (1928–2008)	18 November 1992	11 February 1993	85 days	Patna High Court	Shankar Dayal Sharma
25		M. N. Rao Venkatachaliah (1929–)	12 February 1993	24 October 1994	1 year, 254 days	Karnataka High Court
26		Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi (1932–)	25 October 1994	24 March 1997	2 years, 150 days	Gujarat High Court
27		Jagdish Sharan Verma (1933–2013)	25 March 1997	17 January 1998	298 days	Madhya Pradesh High Court
28		Madan Mohan Punchhi (1933–2015)	18 January 1998	9 October 1998	264 days	Punjab and Haryana High Court	K. R. Narayanan
29		Adarsh Sein Anand (1936–2017)	10 October 1998	31 October 2001	3 years, 21 days	Jammu and Kashmir High Court
30		Sam Piroj Bharucha (1937–)	1 November 2001	5 May 2002	185 days	Bombay High Court
31		Bhupinder Nath Kirpal (1937–)	6 May 2002	7 November 2002	185 days	Delhi High Court
32		Gopal Ballav Pattanaik (1937–)	8 November 2002	18 December 2002	40 days	Orissa High Court	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
33		Vishweshwar Nath Khare (1939–)	19 December 2002	1 May 2004	1 year, 134 days	Allahabad High Court
34		S. Rajendra Babu (1939–)	2 May 2004	31 May 2004	29 days	Karnataka High Court
35		Ramesh Chandra Lahoti (1940–)	1 June 2004	31 October 2005	1 year, 152 days	Madhya Pradesh High Court
36		Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal (1942–2015)	1 November 2005	13 January 2007	1 year, 73 days	Delhi High Court
37		K. G. Balakrishnan (1945–)	14 January 2007	12 May 2010	3 years, 118 days	Kerala High Court
38		Sarosh Homi Kapadia (1947–2016)	12 May 2010	28 September 2012	2 years, 139 days	Bombay High Court	Pratibha Patil
39		Altamas Kabir (1948–2017)	29 September 2012	18 July 2013	292 days	Calcutta High Court	Pranab Mukherjee
40		P. Sathasivam (1949–)	19 July 2013	26 April 2014	281 days	Madras High Court
41		Rajendra Mal Lodha (1949–)	27 April 2014	27 September 2014	153 days	Rajasthan High Court
42		Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu (1950–)	28 September 2014	2 December 2015	1 year, 65 days	Karnataka High Court
43		Tirath Singh Thakur (1952–)	3 December 2015	3 January 2017	1 year, 31 days	Jammu and Kashmir High Court
44		Jagdish Singh Khehar (1952–)	4 January 2017	27 August 2017	235 days	Punjab and Haryana High Court
45		Dipak Misra (1953–)	28 August 2017	2 October 2018	1 year, 35 days	Orissa High Court	Ram Nath Kovind
46		Ranjan Gogoi (1954–)	3 October 2018	17 November 2019	1 year, 45 days	Guwahati High Court
47		Sharad Arvind Bobde (1956–)	18 November 2019	23 April 2021	1 year, 156 days	Bombay High Court
48		Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana (1957–)	24 April 2021	Incumbent	3 years, 4 days	Andhra Pradesh High Court

Notes

• ^† – Date of Death
• ^‡ – Date of Resignation

Trivia

Tenure

• 16th Chief Justice Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud is the longest-serving Chief Justice, serving over 7 years (February 1978 – July 1985).
• 22nd Chief Justice Kamal Narain Singh is the shortest-serving, for 17 days (25 November 1991 – 12 December 1991).

Longevity

• A. K. Sarkar was the longest-lived Chief Justice of India, he died at the age of 100.
• Four chief justices, A. N. Ray, P. N. Bhagwati, Kamal Narain Singh and, M. Narayana Rao Venkatachaliah are nonagenarians.
• Sir H. J. Kania is the shortest-lived Chief Justice, he died in office at the age of 61.

Family relations

• 1st Chief Justice Sir H. J. Kania was the uncle of 23rd Chief Justice M. H. Kania.
• 21st Chief Justice Ranganath Misra was the uncle of 45th Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
• 46th Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was the son of former Chief Minister of Assam, K.C. Gogoi.

Representation

• 11th Chief Justice Mohd. Hidayatullah, being a Muslim was the first CJI from a minority community.
• 37th Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan was the first CJI from Dalit community.
• 44th Chief Justice J. S. Kehar was the first CJI from the Sikh community.

Retirement

• Normally, a chief Justice retires on his birthday.

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