Chief Justice of India

The chief justice of India (CJI) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India and the highest-ranking officer of the Indian judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the President of India to appoint, as recommended by the outgoing chief justice in consultation with other judges, (as envisaged in Article 124 (2) of the Constitution)^[5] the next chief justice, who will serve until they reach the age of 65 or are removed by the constitutional process of impeachment.

Chief Justice of India
Head of highest judicial authority in India
Insignia of the SCI
Incumbent Sanjiv Khanna since 11 November 2024
Supreme Court
Type	Chief Justice
Status	Presiding Judge of Supreme Court of India
Abbreviation	CJI
Residence	5, Krishna Menon Marg, Sunehri Bagh, New Delhi, India[1]
Seat	Supreme Court of India, New Delhi, India
Nominator	Outgoing Chief Justice of India, generally on the basis of Seniority
Appointer	President of India
Term length	Until the age of 65[2]
Constituting instrument	Constitution of India (under Article 124)
Formation	26 January 1950; 75 years ago (1950-01-26)
First holder	H. J. Kania (1950–1951)[3]
Succession	6th (on the Indian order of precedence)
Salary	₹280,000 (US$3,300) (per month)[4]
Website	sci.gov.in

As per convention, the successor suggested by the incumbent chief justice is most often the next most senior judge of the Supreme Court. However, this convention has been broken twice. In 1973, Justice A. N. Ray was appointed, superseding three senior judges, and in 1977 when Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg was appointed as Chief Justice, superseding Justice Hans Raj Khanna.

As head of the Supreme Court, the chief justice is responsible for the allocation of cases and appointment of constitutional benches that deal with important matters of law.^[6] In accordance with Article 145 of the Constitution of India and the Supreme Court Rules of Procedure of 1966, the chief justice has to allocate work to the other judges who are bound to refer the matter back to them (for re-allocation) in any case where they require it to be looked into by another group of experienced judges.

On the administrative side, the chief justice carries out functions of maintenance of the roster, appointment of court officials, and general and miscellaneous matters relating to the supervision and functioning of the Supreme Court. The chief justice is de facto chancellor of National Law School of India University and Visitor of National Law University, Delhi.

The 51st and present chief justice is Sanjiv Khanna. He was sworn in as Chief Justice on 11 November 2024.^[7]

He is due to retire on 13th May 2025. He has nominated Justice Bhushan Gavai as his successor.

Appointment

As the incumbent chief justice approaches retirement, the Ministry of Law and Justice seeks a recommendation from the incumbent chief justice. Consultations with other judges might also take place. The recommendation is then presented to the prime minister, who will advice the president in the matter of appointment.^[8]

Removal

Article 124(4) of the Constitution of India lays down the procedure for the removal of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is applicable to chief justices as well. Once appointed, the chief justice remains in office until age 65. There is no fixed tenure provided in the constitution. ^{[citation needed]} He can be removed only through a process of removal by Parliament as follows:

A Judge of the Supreme Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.

— Article 124(4), Constitution of India, ^[9]

Acting president

The President (Discharge of Functions) Act, 1969 specifies the chief justice of India shall act as the president of India in the event of the offices of both the president and the vice president being vacant.^[10] When President Zakir Hussain died in office, Vice President V. V. Giri acted as the president. Later, V. V. Giri resigned as the vice president, the chief justice, Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah became the acting president of India. As per the convention, the senior most judge of the Supreme Court become the acting chief justice. When the newly elected president took office a month later, Justice Hidayatullah reverted as the chief justice of India.

Remuneration

The Constitution of India gives the power of deciding remuneration as well as other conditions of service of the chief justice to the Parliament of India. Accordingly, such provisions have been laid down in The Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1958.^[11][12] This remuneration was revised in 2006–2008 after the Sixth Central Pay Commission's recommendation.^[13] According to the Seventh pay commission, in 2016, the salary was revised.^[14]

List of chief justices of India

Key

†	Died in office
‡	Resigned

No.	Name (birth–death)	Image	Start of Term	End of Term	Length of Term	Parent High Court	Appointed by (President of India)	Ref.
1	Harilal Jekisundas Kania (1890–1951)		26 January 1950	6 November 1951†	1 year, 284 days	Bombay	Rajendra Prasad	[15]
2	Mandakolathur Patanjali Sastri (1889–1963)		7 November 1951	3 January 1954	2 years, 57 days	Madras		[16]
3	Mehr Chand Mahajan (1889–1967)		4 January 1954	22 December 1954	352 days	Lahore		[17]
4	Bijan Kumar Mukherjea (1891–1956)		23 December 1954	31 January 1956‡	1 year, 39 days	Calcutta		[18]
5	Sudhi Ranjan Das (1894–1977)		1 February 1956	30 September 1959	3 years, 241 days	Calcutta		[19]
6	Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha (1899–1986)		1 October 1959	31 January 1964	4 years, 122 days	Patna		[20]
7	Pralhad Balacharya Gajendragadkar (1901–1981)		1 February 1964	15 March 1966	2 years, 42 days	Bombay	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	[21]
8	Amal Kumar Sarkar (1901–2001)		16 March 1966	29 June 1966	105 days	Calcutta		[22]
9	Koka Subba Rao (1902–1976)		30 June 1966	11 April 1967‡	285 days	Hyderabad		[23]
10	Kailas Nath Wanchoo (1903–1988)		12 April 1967	24 February 1968	318 days	Allahabad		[24]
11	M. Hidayatullah (1905–1992)[a]		25 February 1968	16 December 1970	2 years, 294 days	Bombay	Zakir Hussain	[25]
12	Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah (1906–1991)		17 December 1970	21 January 1971	35 days	Bombay	V. V. Giri	[26]
13	Sarv Mittra Sikri (1908–1992)		22 January 1971	25 April 1973	2 years, 93 days	Bar Council		[27]
14	Ajit Nath Ray (1912–2009)		26 April 1973	28 January 1977	3 years, 276 days	Calcutta		[28]
15	Mirza Hameedullah Beg (1913–1988)		29 January 1977	21 February 1978	1 year, 24 days	Allahabad	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed	[29]
16	Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud (1920–2008)		22 February 1978	11 July 1985	7 years, 139 days	Bombay	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy	[30]
17	Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati (1921–2017)		12 July 1985	20 December 1986	1 year, 161 days	Gujarat	Zail Singh	[31]
18	Raghunandan Swarup Pathak (1924–2007)		21 December 1986	18 June 1989‡	2 years, 209 days	Allahabad		[32]
19	Engalaguppe Seetharamiah Venkataramiah (1924–1997)		19 June 1989	17 December 1989	181 days	Karnataka	Ramaswamy Venkataraman	[33]
20	Sabyasachi Mukharji (1927–1990)		18 December 1989	25 September 1990†	281 days	Calcutta		[34]
21	Ranganath Misra (1926–2012)		26 September 1990	24 November 1991	1 year, 59 days	Orissa		[35]
22	Kamal Narain Singh (1926–2022)		25 November 1991	12 December 1991	17 days	Allahabad		[36]
23	Madhukar Hiralal Kania (1927–2016)		13 December 1991	17 November 1992	340 days	Bombay		[37]
24	Lalit Mohan Sharma (1928–2008)		18 November 1992	11 February 1993	85 days	Patna	Shankar Dayal Sharma	[38]
25	Manepalli Narayanarao Venkatachaliah (born 1929)		12 February 1993	24 October 1994	1 year, 254 days	Karnataka		[39]
26	Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi (1932–2023)		25 October 1994	24 March 1997	2 years, 150 days	Gujarat		[40]
27	Jagdish Sharan Verma (1933–2013)		25 March 1997	17 January 1998	298 days	Madhya Pradesh		[41]
28	Madan Mohan Punchhi (1933–2015)		18 January 1998	9 October 1998	264 days	Punjab and Haryana	K. R. Narayanan	[42]
29	Adarsh Sein Anand (1936–2017)		10 October 1998	31 October 2001	3 years, 21 days	Jammu and Kashmir		[43]
30	Sam Piroj Bharucha (born 1937)		1 November 2001	5 May 2002	185 days	Bombay		[44]
31	Bhupinder Nath Kirpal (born 1937)		6 May 2002	7 November 2002	185 days	Delhi		[45]
32	Gopal Ballav Pattanaik (born 1937)		8 November 2002	18 December 2002	40 days	Orissa	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam	[46]
33	Vishweshwar Nath Khare (born 1939)		19 December 2002	1 May 2004	1 year, 134 days	Allahabad		[47]
34	S. Rajendra Babu (born 1939)		2 May 2004	31 May 2004	29 days	Karnataka		[48]
35	Ramesh Chandra Lahoti (1940–2022)		1 June 2004	31 October 2005	1 year, 152 days	Madhya Pradesh		[49]
36	Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal (1942–2015)		1 November 2005	13 January 2007	1 year, 73 days	Delhi		[50]
37	Konakuppakatil Gopinathan Balakrishnan (born 1945)		14 January 2007	11 May 2010	3 years, 117 days	Kerala		[51]
38	Sarosh Homi Kapadia (1947–2016)		12 May 2010	28 September 2012	2 years, 139 days	Bombay	Pratibha Patil	[52]
39	Altamas Kabir (1948–2017)		29 September 2012	18 July 2013	292 days	Calcutta	Pranab Mukherjee	[53]
40	Palanisamy Sathasivam (born 1949)		19 July 2013	26 April 2014	281 days	Madras		[54]
41	Rajendra Mal Lodha (born 1949)		27 April 2014	27 September 2014	153 days	Rajasthan		[55]
42	Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu (born 1950)		28 September 2014	2 December 2015	1 year, 65 days	Karnataka		[56]
43	Tirath Singh Thakur (born 1952)		3 December 2015	3 January 2017	1 year, 31 days	Jammu and Kashmir		[57]
44	Jagdish Singh Khehar (born 1952)		4 January 2017	27 August 2017	235 days	Punjab and Haryana		[58]
45	Dipak Misra (born 1953)		28 August 2017	2 October 2018	1 year, 35 days	Orissa	Ram Nath Kovind	[59]
46	Ranjan Gogoi (born 1954)		3 October 2018	17 November 2019	1 year, 45 days	Gauhati		[60]
47	Sharad Arvind Bobde (born 1956)		18 November 2019[61]	23 April 2021	1 year, 156 days	Bombay		[62]
48	Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana (born 1957)		24 April 2021	26 August 2022	1 year, 124 days	Andhra Pradesh		[63]
49	Uday Umesh Lalit (born 1957)		27 August 2022	8 November 2022	73 days	Bar Council	Droupadi Murmu	[64]
50	Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud (born 1959)		9 November 2022	10 November 2024	2 years, 1 day	Bombay		[65]
51	Sanjiv Khanna (born 1960)		11 November 2024	Incumbent	163 days	Delhi		[66]

Main article: List of chief justices of India

See also: List of sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India

See also

• Collegium system
• Supreme Court of India
• High courts of India
• Tribunals in India
• Judiciary of India
• Constitution of India
• List of chief justices of India
• National Judicial Appointments Commission
• List of landmark court decisions in India

Current Judiciary

• List of current Indian chief justices
• List of sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India

Notes

1. Also served as acting President of India and Vice President of India