List of Chief Justices of India

List of Chief Justices

Federal Court of India (1937-1950)

The Federal Court 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 Shah Muhammad Sulaiman and M. R. Jayakar. It functioned until the establishment of the Supreme Court of India on 28 January 1950.

Number Name Period of office Length of term (days) Bar Appointed by
1 Sir Maurice Gwyer 1 October 1937 25 April 1943 2,032 Inner Temple The Marquess of Linlithgow
Acting Sir Srinivas Vardachariar 25 April 1943 7 June 1943 43
2 Sir Patrick Spens 7 June 1943 14 August 1947 1,529 Inner Temple
3 Sir H. J. Kania 14 August 1947 26 January 1950 896 Bombay High Court The Viscount Mountbatten of Burma

‡ – Date of Resignation

Supreme Court of India

Since the birth of the Republic of India on 26 January 1950, 42 people have served as the Chief Justice of India (CJI).[1] While H. J. Kania is the inaugural CJI, the current incumbent is T. S. Thakur who was appointed as Chief Justice of India on 03.12.2015. Justice Y. V. Chandrachud is the longest serving Chief Justice (February 1978 - July 1985).

Number Name Period of office Length of term (days) Bar Appointed by
1 H. J. Kania 26 January 1950 6 November 1951‡‡ 649 Bombay High Court Rajendra Prasad
2 M. Patanjali Sastri 7 November 1951 3 January 1954 788 Madras High Court
3 Mehr Chand Mahajan 4 January 1954 22 December 1954 352 East Punjab High Court
4 Bijan Kumar Mukherjea 23 December 1954 31 January 1956 404 Calcutta High Court
5 Sudhi Ranjan Das 1 February 1956 30 September 1959 1337 Calcutta High Court
6 Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Singha 1 October 1959 31 January 1964 1583 Patna High Court
7 P. B. Gajendragadkar 1 February 1964 15 March 1966 773 Bombay High Court Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
8 Amal Kumar Sarkar 16 March 1966 29 June 1966 105 Calcutta High Court
9 Koka Subba Rao 30 June 1966 11 April 1967 285 Madras High Court
10 Kailas Nath Wanchoo 12 April 1967 24 February 1968 318 Allahabad High Court
11 Mohammad Hidayatullah[2] 25 February 1968 16 December 1970 1025 Bombay High Court Zakir Hussain
12 Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah 17 December 1970 21 January 1971 35 Bombay High Court Varahagiri Venkata Giri
13 Sarv Mittra Sikri 22 Jan 1971 25 April 1973 824 Lahore High Court
14 Ajit Nath Ray 26 April 1973 27 January 1977 1372 Calcutta High Court
15 Mirza Hameedullah Beg 28 January 1977 21 February 1978 389 Allahabad High Court Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
16 Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud 22 February 1978 11 July 1985 2696 Bombay High Court Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
17 Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati 12 July 1985 20 December 1986 526 Gujarat High Court Gyani Zail Singh
18 Raghunandan Swarup Pathak 21 December 1986 18 June 1989 940 Allahabad High Court
19 Engalaguppe Seetharamiah Venkataramiah 19 June 1989 17 December 1989 181 Karnataka High Court Ramaswamy Venkataraman
20 Sabyasachi Mukharji 18 December 1989 25 September 1990‡‡ 281 Calcutta High Court
21 Ranganath Misra 26 September 1990 24 November 1991 424 Orissa High Court
22 Kamal Narain Singh 25 November 1991 12 December 1991 17 Allahabad High Court
23 Madhukar Hiralal Kania 13 December 1991 17 November 1992 340 Bombay High Court
24 Lalit Mohan Sharma 18 November 1992 11 February 1993 85 Patna High Court Shankar Dayal Sharma
25 Manepalli Narayana Rao Venkatachaliah 12 February 1993 24 October 1994 619 Karnataka High Court
26 Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi 25 October 1994 24 March 1997 881 Gujarat High Court
27 Jagdish Sharan Verma 25 March 1997 17 January 1998 298 Madhya Pradesh High Court
28 Madan Mohan Punchhi 18 January 1998 9 October 1998 264 Punjab and Haryana High Court Kocheril Raman Narayanan
29 Adarsh Sein Anand 10 October 1998 11 January 2001 824 Jammu and Kashmir High Court
30 Sam Piroj Bharucha 11 January 2001 6 May 2002 480 Bombay High Court
31 Bhupinder Nath Kirpal 6 May 2002 8 November 2002 186 Delhi High Court
32 Gopal Ballav Pattanaik 8 November 2002 19 December 2002 41 Orissa High Court A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
33 V. N. Khare 19 Dec 2002 2 May 2004 500 Allahabad High Court
34 S. Rajendra Babu 2 May 2004 1 June 2004 30 Karnataka High Court
35 Ramesh Chandra Lahoti 1 June 2004 1 November 2005 518 Madhya Pradesh High Court
36 Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal 1 November 2005 13 January 2007 438 Delhi High Court
37 K. G. Balakrishnan 13 January 2007 11 May 2010 1214 Kerala High Court
38 S. H. Kapadia 12 May 2010 28 Sep 2012 870 Bombay High Court Pratibha Patil
39 Altamas Kabir 29 September 2012 18 July 2013 292 Calcutta High Court Pranab Mukherjee
40 P. Sathasivam 19 July 2013 26 April 2014 281 Madras High Court
41 Rajendra Mal Lodha 27 April 2014 27 September 2014 153 Rajasthan High Court
42 H. L. Dattu 28 September 2014 2 December 2015 584 Karnataka High Court
43 T. S. Thakur 3 December 2015 Incumbent 78 Jammu and Kashmir High Court

Notes

References

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