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. 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.

A new chief justice is appointed by the president of India with recommendations by the outgoing chief justice in consultation with other judges. The chief justice serves in the role until they reach the age of sixty-five or are removed by the constitutional process of impeachment. 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.

A total of 53 chief justices have served in the office since the Supreme Court of India superseded the Federal Court of India in 1950.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 ( – ), while Kamal Narain Singh, the 22nd chief justice, is the shortest-serving, for 17 days in 1991. As of 2025, there has been no woman who has served as chief justice of India. The current and 53rd chief justice is Surya Kant who entered office on 24 November 2025. He will have a term of 15 months which is due to end on 9 February 2027. List Chief Justices of the Federal Court of India The Federal Court of India came into being on 1 October 1937. The seat of the court was in Delhi and it functioned until the establishment of the Supreme Court of India on 28 January 1950. The first chief justice was Sir Maurice Gwyer.

Key

+ Name(birth–death) Image Start of Term End of Term Length of term Parent Bar / High Court Appointed by (Governor-General of India) 1 (1878–1952) Inner Temple — (1881–1970) — Madras 2 (1885–1973) Inner Temple 3 (1890–1951) Bombay

Chief Justices

+Key Died in office Resigned

Image Name(birth–death) Start of Term End of Term Length of TermParent High CourtAppointed by(President of India) 1 (1890–1951) Bombay 2 (1889–1963) Madras 3 (1889–1967) Lahore 4 (1891–1956) Calcutta 5 (1894–1977) Calcutta 6 (1899–1986) Patna 7 (1901–1981) Bombay 8 (1901–2001) Calcutta 9 (1902–1976) Madras 10 (1903–1988) Allahabad 11 (1905–1992) Nagpur 12 (1906–1991) Bombay 13 (1908–1992) Bar Council 14 (1912–2009) Calcutta 15 (1913–1988) Allahabad 16 (1920–2008) Bombay 17 (1921–2017) Gujarat 18 (1924–2007) ‡ Allahabad 19 (1924–1997) Karnataka 20 (1927–1990) Calcutta 21 (1926–2012) Orissa 22 (1926–2022) Allahabad 23 (1927–2016) Bombay 24 (1928–2008) Patna 25 (born 1929) Karnataka 26 (1932–2023) Gujarat 27 (1933–2013) Madhya Pradesh 28 (1933–2015) Punjab and Haryana 29 (1936–2017) Jammu and Kashmir 30 (born 1937) Bombay 31 (born 1937) Delhi 32 (born 1937) Orissa 33 (born 1939) Allahabad 34 (born 1939) Karnataka 35 (1940–2022) Madhya Pradesh 36 (1942–2015) Delhi 37 (born 1945) Kerala 38 (1947–2016) Bombay 39 (1948–2017) Calcutta 40 (born 1949) Madras 41 (born 1949) Rajasthan 42 (born 1950) Karnataka 43 (born 1952) Jammu and Kashmir 44 (born 1952) Punjab and Haryana 45 (born 1953) Orissa 46 (born 1954) Gauhati 47 (born 1956) Bombay 48 (born 1957) Andhra Pradesh 49 (born 1957) Bar Council 50 (born 1959) Bombay 51 (born 1960) Delhi 52 (born 1960) Bombay 53(born 1962) IncumbentPunjab and Haryana

See also List of current Indian chief justices List of female chief justices in India List of sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India List of former judges of the Supreme Court of India List of female judges of the Supreme Court of India

Notes

References