List of all Chief Justices of India (1950-2022)

Q: Who is the shortest serving Chief Justice of India

Justice Kamal Narain Singh is the shortest serving Chief Justice of India

Q: Who is the longest serving Chief Justice of India

Justice Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud is the longest serving Chief Justice of India

Q: Who was the first Muslim Chief Justice of India

Justice Mohd Hidayatullah was the first Muslim Chief Justice of India

Q: Who was the first Dalit Chief Justice of India

Justice K G Balakrishnan was the first Chief Justice of India

At present, there are 34 judges in the Supreme Court of India including the Chief Justice of India. Justice DY Chandrachud took oath as the 50th CJI on Wednesday and will continue to serve till his retirement in 2024.

Hemant Singh Updated: Nov 9, 2022 13:11 IST

Supreme Court of India

With the establishment of the Supreme Court of India on 26 January 1950, 50 judges have served as the Chief Justice of India to date. Justice DY Chandrachud is the 50th Chief Justice of India.

The Chief Justice of India is appointed by the President of India and can hold office up to the age of 65 years. Generally, the senior-most Judge of the Supreme Court of India is appointed as the Chief Justice of India. The constitution and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India are stated in detail from Article 124 to Article147 of the Indian Constitution.

List of all the Chief Justices of India

Name	Date of Appointment as C.J.I.	Held Office till
1. Hon’ble Justice Harilal Jekisundas Kania	26/01/1950	06/11/1951
2. Hon’ble Justice M. Patanjali Sastri	07/11/1951	03/01/1954
3. Hon’ble Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan	04/01/1954	22/12/1954
4. Hon’ble Justice Bijan Kumar Mukherjea	23/12/1954	31/01/1956
5. Hon’ble Justice Sudhi Ranjan Das	01/02/1956	30/09/1959
6. Hon’ble Justice Bhuvneshwar Prasad Sinha	01/10/1959	31/01/1964
7. Hon’ble Justice P.B. Gajendragadkar	01/02/1964	15/03/1966
8. Hon’ble Justice A.K. Sarkar	16/03/1966	29/06/1966
9. Hon’ble Justice K. Subba Rao	30/06/1966	11/04/1967
10.Hon’ble Justice K.N. Wanchoo	12/04/1967	24/02/1968
11. Hon’ble Justice M. Hidayatullah	25/02/1968	16/12/1970
12. Hon’ble Justice J.C. Shah	17/12/1970	21/01/1971
13. Hon’ble Justice S.M. Sikri	22/01/1971	25/04/1973
14. Hon’ble Justice A.N. Ray	26/04/1973	28/01/1977
15. Hon’ble Justice M. Hameedullah Beg	29/01/1977	21/02/1978
16. Hon’ble Justice Y.V. Chandrachud	22/02/1978	11/07/1985
17. Hon’ble Justice P.N. Bhagwati	12/07/1985	20/12/1986
18. Hon’ble Justice R.S. Pathak	21/12/1986	18/06/1989
19. Hon’ble Justice E.S. Venkataramiah	19/06/1989	17/12/1989
20. Hon’ble Justice Sabyasachi Mukherjee	18/12/1989	25/09/1990
21. Hon’ble Justice Ranganath Misra	25/09/1990	24/11/1991
22. Hon’ble Justice K.N. Singh	25/11/1991	12/12/1991
23. Hon’ble Justice M.H. Kania	13/12/1991	17/11/1992
24. Hon’ble Justice L.M. Sharma	18/11/1992	11/02/1993
25. Hon’ble Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah	12/02/1993	24/10/1994
26. Hon’ble Justice A.M. Ahmadi	25/10/1994	24/03/1997
27. Hon’ble Justice J.S. Verma	25/03/1997	17/01/1998
28. Hon’ble Justice M.M. Punchhi	18/01/1998	09/10/1998
29. Hon’ble Dr. Justice A.S. Anand	10/10/1998	31/10/2001
30. Hon’ble Justice S.P. Bharucha	01/11/2001	05/05/2002
31. Hon’ble Justice B.N. Kirpal	06/05/2002	07/11/2002
32. Hon’ble Justice G.B. Pattanaik	08/11/2002	18/12/2002
33. Hon’ble Justice V.N. Khare	19/12/2002	01/05/2004
34. Hon’ble Justice S. Rajendra Babu	02/05/2004	31/05/2004
35. Hon’ble Justice R.C. Lahoti	01/06/2004	31/10/2005
36. Hon’ble Justice Y.K. Sabharwal	01/11/2005	13/01/2007
37. Hon'ble Justice K.G. Balakrishnan	14/01/2007	12/05/2010
38. Hon'ble Justice S.H. Kapadia	12/05/2010	28/09/2012
39. Hon'ble Justice Altamas Kabir	29/09/2012	18/07/2013
40. Hon'ble Justice P. Sathasivam	19/07/2013	26/04/2014
41. Hon'ble Justice R. M. Lodha	27/04/2014	27/09/2014
42. Hon'ble Justice H.L. Dattu	28/09/2014	02/12/2015
43. Hon'ble T. S. Thakur	03/12/2015	03/01/2017
44. Hon'ble Jagdish Singh Khehar	04/01/2017	27/08/2017
45. Hon'ble Justice Dipak Misra	28/08/2017	02/10/2018
46. Hon'ble Ranjan Gogoi	03/10/2018	17/11/2019
47. Hon'ble Sharad Arvind Bobde	18/11/2019	23/04/2021
48. Hon'ble Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana	24/04/2021	26/08/2022
49. Hon'ble UU Lalit	27/08/2022	8/11/2022
50. Hon'ble DY Chandrachud	09/11/2022	10/11/2024

Supreme Court of India: Composition, Power and Functions

The Federal Court of India came into existence on 1 October 1937. The first Chief Justice of India was Sir Maurice Gwyer (1 October 1937 to 25 April 1943). Federal Court of India functioned between 1937– 1950. Justice Harilal Jekisundas Kania was the first Indian Chief Justice of India.

Justice Y. V. Chandrachud is the longest-serving Chief Justice (February 1978 – July 1985), who served 2696 days while Kamal Narain Singh is the shortest-serving (21 November 1991 – 12 December 1991), just 17 days.

So, this was the complete list of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. The list is very important for the upcoming government and competitive examinations to be held in India.

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