List of Chief Justice of India

The Chief Justice of India is the head of the judiciary system in India. Article 126 under Part V of the Indian Constitution deals with the appointment of an acting Chief Justice of India. The President of India appoints a judge of the Supreme Court as an Acting Chief Justice of India.

The Chief Justice of India is the head of the Supreme Court. He is responsible for the allocation of cases and appointment of constitutional benches which deal with important legal matters. Article 145 of the Indian Constitution provides the right to the Chief Justice of India to allocate the respective subjects of relevance to the bench of judges.

There are a total of 49 Chief Justices of India that have served since the establishment of the Supreme Court of India in 1950. The Incumbent and 49th Chief Justice of India is Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, who entered office on 27 August 2022.

Sr No.	Name	Tenure	Period of Office	Parent High Court	Appointed by President of India
1.	Harilal J. Kania	1950 – 1951	26 January 1950 to 6 November 1951	Bombay	Rajendra Prasad
2.	M. Patanjali Sastri	1951 – 1954	7 November 1951 to 3 January 1954	Madras	Rajendra Prasad
3.	M. C. Mahajan	1954 – 1954	4 January 1954 to 22 December 1954	Lahore	Rajendra Prasad
4.	Bijan Kumar Mukherjea	1954 – 1956	23 December 1954 to 31 January 1956	Calcutta	Rajendra Prasad
5.	S. R. Das	1956 – 1959	1 February 1956 to 30 September 1959	Calcutta	Rajendra Prasad
6.	B. P. Sinha	1959 – 1964	1 October 1959 to 31 January 1964	Patna	Rajendra Prasad
7.	P. B. Gajendragadkar	1964 – 1966	1 February 1964 to 15 March 1966	Bombay	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
8.	A. K. Sarkar	1966 – 1966	16 March 1966 to 29 June 1966	Calcutta	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
9.	Koka Subba Rao	1966 – 1967	30 June 1966 to 11 April 1967	Madras	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
10.	K. N. Wanchoo	1967 – 1968	12 April 1967 to 24 February 1968	Allahabad	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
11.	Mohammad Hidayatullah	1968 – 1970	25 February 1968 to 16 December 1970	Bombay	Zakir Hussain
12.	J. C. Shah	1970 – 1971	17 December 1970 to 21 January 1971	Bombay	V. V. Giri
13.	S. M. Sikri	1971 – 1973	22 January 1971 to 25 April 1973	Bar Council	V. V. Giri
14.	Ajit Nath Ray	1973 – 1977	26 April 1973 to 28 January 1977	Calcutta	V. V. Giri
15.	M. H. Beg	1977 – 1978	29 January 1977 to 21 February 1978	Allahabad	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
16.	Y. V. Chandrachud	1978 – 1985	22 February 1978 to 11 July 1985	Bombay	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
17.	P. N. Bhagwati	1985 – 1986	12 July 1985 to 20 December 1986	Gujarat	Zail Singh
18.	Raghunandan Swarup Pathak	1986 – 1989	21 December 1986 to 18 June 1989	Allahabad	Zail Singh
19.	E. S. Venkataramiah	1989 – 1989	19 June 1989 to 17 December 1989	Karnataka	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
20.	S. Mukharji	1989 – 1990	18 December 1989 to 25 September 1990	Calcutta	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
21.	Ranganath Misra	1990 – 1991	26 September 1990 to 24 November 1991	Odisha	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
22.	Kamal Narain Singh	1991 – 1991	25 November 1991 to 12 December 1991	Allahabad	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
23.	M. H. Kania	1991 – 1992	13 December 1991 to 17 November 1992	Bombay	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
24.	Lalit Mohan Sharma	1992 – 1993	18 November 1992 to 11 February 1993	Patna	Shankar Dayal Sharma
25.	M. N. Venkatachaliah	1993 – 1994	12 February 1993 to 24 October 1994	Karnataka	Shankar Dayal Sharma
26.	A. M. Ahmadi	1994 – 1997	25 October 1994 to 24 March 1997	Gujarat	Shankar Dayal Sharma
27.	J. S. Verma	1997 – 1998	25 March 1997 to 17 January 1998	Madhya Pradesh	Shankar Dayal Sharma
28.	M. M. Punchhi	1998 – 1998	18 January 1998 to 9 October 1998	Punjab and Haryana	K. R. Narayanan
29.	A. S. Anand	1998 – 2001	10 October 1998 to 31 October 2001	Jammu and Kashmir	K. R. Narayanan
30.	S. P. Bharucha	2001 – 2002	1 November 2001 to 5 May 2002	Bombay	K. R. Narayanan
31.	Bhupinder Nath Kirpal	2002 – 2002	6 May 2002 to 7 November 2002	Delhi	K. R. Narayanan
32.	G. B. Pattanaik	2002 – 2002	8 November 2002 to 18 December 2002	Odisha	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
33.	V. N. Khare	2002 – 2004	19 December 2002 to 1 May 2004	Allahabad	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
34.	S. Rajendra Babu	2004 – 2004	2 May 2004 to 31 May 2004	Karnataka	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
35.	R. C. Lahoti	2004 – 2005	1 June 2004 to 31 October 2005	Madhya Pradesh	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
36.	Y. K Sabharwal	2005 – 2007	1 November 2005 to 13 January 2007	Delhi	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
37.	K. G. Balakrishnan	2007 – 2010	14 January 2007 to 11 May 2010	Kerala	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
38.	S. H. Kapadia	2010 – 2012	12 May 2010 to 28 September 2012	Bombay	Pratibha Patil
39.	Altamas Kabir	2012 – 2013	29 September 2012 to 18 July 2013	Calcutta	Pranab Mukherjee
40.	P. Sathasivam	2013 – 2014	19 July 2013 to 26 April 2014	Madras	Pranab Mukherjee
41.	Rajendra Mal Lodha	2014 – 2014	27 April 2014 to 27 September 2014	Rajasthan	Pranab Mukherjee
42.	H. L. Dattu	2014 – 2015	28 September 2014 to 2 December 2015	Karnataka	Pranab Mukherjee
43.	T. S. Thakur	2015 – 2017	3 December 2015 to 3 January 2017	Jammu and Kashmir	Pranab Mukherjee
44.	Jagdish Singh Khehar	2017 – 2017	4 January 2017 to 27 August 2017	Punjab and Harayana	Pranab Mukherjee
45.	Dipak Misra	2017 – 2018	28 August 2017 to 2 October 2018	Odisha	Ram Nath Kovind
46.	Ranjan Gogoi	2018 – 2019	3 October 2018 to 17 November 2019	Gauhati	Ram Nath Kovind
47.	Sharad Arvid Bobde	2019 – 2021	18 November 2019 to 23 April 2021	Bombay	Ram Nath Kovind
48.	N. V. Ramana	2021 – 2022	24 April 2021 to 26 August 2022	Andhra Pradesh	Ram Nath Kovind
49.	Uday Umesh Lalit	2022 – present	27 August 2022 – (Incumbent)	Bar Council	Droupadi Murmu

The 16th Chief Justice of India, Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud, is the longest-serving chief justice, serving over seven years.

22nd Chief Justice of India, Kamal Narain Singh, is the shortest-serving Chief Justice for 17 days.