List of Chief Justice of India (CJI) from 1950-2022

Q: Who is the current serving Chief Justice of India (CJI).

Justice D.Y. Chandrachud is the current serving Chief Justice of India (CJI).

Table of Contents

List of Chief Justice of India

Chief Justice of India list: Chief Justice of India (CJI) List consists of name of first Chief Justice of India to the current Chief Justice of India. It will help aspirants in various government exams like SSC, Banking and UPSC. List of Chief Justice of India will also help aspirants in establishing a timeline for interlinking other contemporary events. Chief Justice of India (CJI) questions are asked under the Static GK part of the General Awareness Section.

List of Chief Justice of India in News

People often ask who is the present Chief Justice of India (CJI)?. The answer is Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud who has recently assumed the Office of CJI from 09^th November 2022. In this context, we are discussing the Chief Justice of India list.

Who is D. Y. Chandrachud- the 50th Chief Justice of India?

About: CJI Y. Chandrachud is a former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court and a former judge of the Bombay High Court.
- He is also known for his description of dissent as the “safety valve of democracy”.
Tenure: Justice D.Y. Chandrachud will serve as CJI for a term of two years.
- V. Chandrachud (father of Justice Chandrachud) is known for being the longest-serving CJI (from February 22, 1978, to July 11, 1985).
Key Judgements: Justice Chandrachud has been part of several Constitution Benches which have delivered landmark verdicts such as-
- The Ayodhya land dispute judgement and
- S. Puttaswamy judgement 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 (decriminalising same-sex relations),
- The validity of the Aadhaar scheme and
- The Sabarimala issue.

Chief Justice of India List

List of Chief Justice of India Combines the names and tenures of all the 50 Chief Juctices of India who have occupied the position of Chief Justice of India (CJI) since independence of India. First Chief Justice of India (CJI) was H.J Kania who served as CJI from 26^th January 1950 to 06^th November 1951.

Sr. N.	Chief Justice of India List	Tenure of CJI
1^st	H.J Kania	26 January 1950 – 6 November 1951
2^nd	M. Patanjali Sastri	7 November 1951 – 3 January 1954
3^rd	Mehr Chand Mahajan	4 January 1954 – 22 December 1954
4^th	Bijan Kumar Mukherjea	23 December 1954 – 31 January 1956
5^th	Sudhi Ranjan Das	1 February 1956 – 30 September 1959
6^th	Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha	1 October 1959 – 31 January 1964
7^th	P. B. Gajendragadkar	1 February 1964 – 15 March 1966
8^th	Amal Kumar Sarkar	16 March 1966 – 29 June 1966
9^th	Koka Subba Rao	30 June 1966 – 11 April 1967
10^th	Kailas Nath Wanchoo	12 April 1967 – 24 February 1968
11^th	Mohammad Hidayatullah	25 February 1968 – 16 December 1970
12^th	Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah	17 December 1970 – 21 January 1971
13^th	Sarv Mittra Sikri	22 January 1971 – 25 April 1973
14^th	A. N. Ray	26 April 1973 – 27 January 1977
15^th	Mirza Hameedullah Beg	29 January 1977 – 21 February 1978
16^th	Y. V. Chandrachud	22 February 1978 – 11 July 1985
17^th	P. N. Bhagwati	12 July 1985 – 20 December 1986
18^th	Raghunandan Swarup Pathak	21 December 1986 – 18 June 1989
19^th	Engalaguppe Seetharamaiah Venkataramiah	19 June 1989 – 17 December 1989
20^th	Sabyasachi Mukharji	18 December 1989 – 25 September 1990
21^st	Ranganath Misra	26 September 1990 – 24 November 1991
22^nd	Kamal Narain Singh	25 November 1991 – 12 December 1991
23^rd	Madhukar Hiralal Kania	13 December 1991 – 17 November 1992
24^th	Lalit Mohan Sharma	18 November 1992 – 11 February 1993
25^th	M. N. Venkatachaliah	12 February 1993 – 24 October 1994
26^th	Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi	25 October 1994 – 24 March 1997
27^th	J. S. Verma	25 March 1997 – 17 January 1998
28^th	Madan Mohan Punchhi	18 January 1998 – 9 October 1998
29^th	Adarsh Sein Anand	10 October 1998 – 31 October 2001
30^th	Sam Piroj Bharucha	1 November 2001 – 5 May 2002
31^st	Bhupinder Nath Kirpal	6 May 2002 – 7 November 2002
32^nd	Gopal Ballav Pattanaik	8 November 2002 – 18 December 2002
33^rd	V. N. Khare	19 December 2002 – 1 May 2004
34^th	S. Rajendra Babu	2 May 2004 – 31 May 2004
35^th	Ramesh Chandra Lahoti	1 June 2004 – 31 October 2005
36^th	Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal	1 November 2005 – 13 January 2007
37^th	K. G. Balakrishnan	14 January 2007 – 12 May 2010
38^th	S. H. Kapadia	12 May 2010 – 28 September 2012
39^th	Altamas Kabir	29 September 2012 – 18 July 2013
40^th	P. Sathasivam	19 July 2013 – 26 April 2014
41^st	Rajendra Mal Lodha	27 April 2014 – 27 September 2014
42^nd	H. L. Dattu	28 September 2014 – 2 December 2015
43^rd	T. S. Thakur	3 December 2015 – 3 January 2017
44^th	Jagdish Singh Khehar	4 January 2017 – 27 August 2017
45^th	Dipak Misra	28 August 2017 – 2 October 2018
46^th	Ranjan Gogoi	3 October 2018 – 17 November 2019
47^th	Sharad Arvind Bobde	18 November 2019 – 23 April 2021
48^th	N. V. Ramana	24 April 2021 – 26 August 2022
49^th	U. U. Lalit	27 August 2022 – 8 November 2022
50^th	D. Y. Chandrachud	9 November 2022 – Incumbent

Facts About Previous Chief Justice of India

Here are some interesting facts about the Previous Chief Justices of India. Read through the following section carefully.

Amal Kumar Sarkar was the longest-lived chief justice of India, he died at the age of 100.
Kamal Narain Singh, the 22nd chief justice, is the shortest-serving, for 17 days (25 November 1991 – 12 December 1991).
Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud, the 16th chief justice, is the longest-serving chief justice, serving over seven years (February 1978 – July 1985).
Jagdish Singh Khehar, the 44th chief justice, was the first CJI from the Sikh community.
Sam Piroj Bharucha, the 30th Chief Justice was the first CJI from the Parsi community.
Harilal Jekisundas Kania is the shortest-lived chief justice, he died in office at the age of 61.

Who is the Chief Justice of India?

The Chief Justice of India is the head of the Supreme Court of India along with the judiciary system in India. In other words, the CJI is the highest-ranking officer in the judicial system in India. The CJI is appointed by the President from the Bench of Supreme Court Judges on the basis of their seniority. The CJI is responsible for maintaining the functioning of the Supreme Court such as the appointment of cases, maintaining the roster and so on.

Responsibilities of Chief Justice of India

The Chief Justice of India is responsible for various important functioning of the Judicial System of India. Some of the main responsibilities of the CJI are mentioned below.

The CJI Is responsible for allocating cases of cases to the Supreme Court Judges.
CJI appoints judicial and constitutional benches to deal with important legal matters.
The Supreme Court Judges are appointed by the President of India after consultation with the CJI.
The outgoing CJI often recommends the next appointed CJI to the President as per the seniority principle.
The CJI appoints other court officials as well