Table of Contents
Introduction
The Chief Justice of India (CJI) is the head of the judiciary of India and 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.
This article gives the list of Chief Justice of India and their tenure.
List of Chief Justices of India
There have been 50 Chief justices in India to date.
| Chief Justice of India | Tenure |
| H.J Kania | 26 January 1950 – 6 November 1951 |
| M. Patanjali Sastri | 7 November 1951 – 3 January 1954 |
| Mehr Chand Mahajan | 4 January 1954 – 22 December 1954 |
| Bijan Kumar Mukherjea | 23 December 1954 – 31 January 1956 |
| Sudhi Ranjan Das | 1 February 1956 – 30 September 1959 |
| Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha | 1 October 1959 – 31 January 1964 |
| P. B. Gajendragadkar | 1 February 1964 – 15 March 1966 |
| Amal Kumar Sarkar | 16 March 1966 – 29 June 1966 |
| Koka Subba Rao | 30 June 1966 – 11 April 1967 |
| Kailas Nath Wanchoo | 12 April 1967 – 24 February 1968 |
| Mohammad Hidayatullah | 25 February 1968 – 16 December 1970 |
| Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah | 17 December 1970 – 21 January 1971 |
| Sarv Mittra Sikri | 22 January 1971 – 25 April 1973 |
| A. N. Ray | 26 April 1973 – 27 January 1977 |
| Mirza Hameedullah Beg | 29 January 1977 – 21 February 1978 |
| Y. V. Chandrachud | 22 February 1978 – 11 July 1985 |
| P. N. Bhagwati | 12 July 1985 – 20 December 1986 |
| Raghunandan Swarup Pathak | 21 December 1986 – 18 June 1989 |
| Engalaguppe Seetharamaiah Venkataramiah | 19 June 1989 – 17 December 1989 |
| Sabyasachi Mukharji | 18 December 1989 – 25 September 1990 |
| Ranganath Misra | 26 September 1990 – 24 November 1991 |
| Kamal Narain Singh | 25 November 1991 – 12 December 1991 |
| Madhukar Hiralal Kania | 13 December 1991 – 17 November 1992 |
| Lalit Mohan Sharma | 18 November 1992 – 11 February 1993 |
| M. N. Venkatachaliah | 12 February 1993 – 24 October 1994 |
| Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi | 25 October 1994 – 24 March 1997 |
| J. S. Verma | 25 March 1997 – 17 January 1998 |
| Madan Mohan Punchhi | 18 January 1998 – 9 October 1998 |
| Adarsh Sein Anand | 10 October 1998 – 31 October 2001 |
| Sam Piroj Bharucha | 1 November 2001 – 5 May 2002 |
| Bhupinder Nath Kirpal | 6 May 2002 – 7 November 2002 |
| Gopal Ballav Pattanaik | 8 November 2002 – 18 December 2002 |
| V. N. Khare | 19 December 2002 – 1 May 2004 |
| S. Rajendra Babu | 2 May 2004 – 31 May 2004 |
| Ramesh Chandra Lahoti | 1 June 2004 – 31 October 2005 |
| Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal | 1 November 2005 – 13 January 2007 |
| K. G. Balakrishnan | 14 January 2007 – 12 May 2010 |
| S. H. Kapadia | 12 May 2010 – 28 September 2012 |
| Altamas Kabir | 29 September 2012 – 18 July 2013 |
| P. Sathasivam | 19 July 2013 – 26 April 2014 |
| Rajendra Mal Lodha | 27 April 2014 – 27 September 2014 |
| H. L. Dattu | 28 September 2014 – 2 December 2015 |
| T. S. Thakur | 3 December 2015 – 3 January 2017 |
| Jagdish Singh Khehar | 4 January 2017 – 27 August 2017 |
| Dipak Misra | 28 August 2017 – 2 October 2018 |
| Ranjan Gogoi | 3 October 2018 – 17 November 2019 |
| Sharad Arvind Bobde | 18 November 2019 – 23 April 2021 |
| N. V. Ramana | 24 April 2021 – 26 August 2022 |
| U. U. Lalit | 27 August 2022 – 8 November 2022 |
| D. Y. Chandrachud | 9 November 2022 – Incumbent |
Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud
Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud has been appointed as the new Chief Justice of India on 9th November 2022. Justice Chandrachud is the 50th CJI and has taken over the post from Justice U.U Lalit who served a brief term as India’s 49th Chief Justice.
Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud is known for his description of dissent as the “safety valve of democracy”, and for being part of several Constitution Benches which have delivered landmark verdicts such as the Ayodhya land dispute judgment and K.S. Puttaswamy judgment which upheld the right to privacy as a Fundamental Right.
He was also part of the Benches that delivered path-breaking judgments on striking down the parts of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (decriminalizing same-sex relations), the validity of the Aadhaar scheme, and the Sabarimala issue.
Justice D.Y. Chandrachud will serve as CJI for a term of two years and his father, Y.V. Chandrachud is known for being the longest-serving CJI as held the position from February 22, 1978, to July 11, 1985.
He is a former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court and a former judge of the Bombay High Court.