List of Chief Justices of India

The Chief Justice of India is the highest-ranking officer of the Indian judiciary and the chief judge of 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.^[1] In accordance with Article 145 of the Constitution of India and the Supreme Court Rules of Procedure of 1966, the chief justice allocates all work to the other judges.^[2]

A new chief justice is appointed by the president of India with recommendations by the outgoing chief justice in consultation with other judges.^[3] The chief justice serves in the role until they reach the age of sixty-five or are removed by the constitutional process of impeachment.^[2] As per convention, the name suggested by the incumbent chief justice is almost always the next senior-most judge in the Supreme Court. This convention has been broken twice: in 1973, Justice A. N. Ray was appointed superseding three senior judges and in 1977, Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg was appointed as the chief justice superseding Justice Hans Raj Khanna.^[4]

A total of 51 chief justices have served in the office since the Supreme Court of India superseded the Federal Court of India in 1950. Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud, the 16th chief justice, is the longest-serving chief justice, serving over seven years (February 1978 – July 1985), while Kamal Narain Singh, the 22nd chief justice, is the shortest-serving, for 17 days in 1991. As of 2024, there has been no woman who has served as chief justice of India.^[5] The current and 51st Chief Justice is Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who entered office on 11 November 2024.^[6][7] He will have a term of 6 months and is due to end on 31 March 2025.