Chief Justices of India

The chief justice of India (CJI) is the head of the judiciary system of India. The Chief Justice of India or CJI is the head of the Supreme Court. Generally, the outgoing CJI recommends the name of the senior-most judge for appointment. The President of India given oath of office to the CJI.

Chief Justices of India
Name Term of Office
Harilal Jekisundas Kania 26th January 1950 - 6th November 1951
M. Patanjali Sastri 7th November 1951 - 3 Jrdanuary 1954
Mehar Chand Mahajan 4th January 1954 - 22nd December 1954
B.K. Mukherjea 23rd December 1954 - 31st January 1956
Sudhi Ranjan Das 1st February 1956 - 30th September 1959
Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha 1st October 1959 - 31st January 1964
P.B. Gajendragadkar 1st February 1964 - 15th March 1966
A.K. Sarkar 16th March 1966 - 29th June 1966
K. Subba Rao 30th June 1966 - 11th April 1967
K.N. Wanchoo 12th April 1967 - 24th February 1968
M. Hidayatullah 25th February 1968 - 16th December 1970
I.C. Shah 17th December 1970 - 21st January 1971
S.M. Sikri 22nd January 1971 - 25th April 1973
A.N. Ray 26th April 1973 - 27th January 1977
M. Hameedullah Beg 28th January 1977 - 21st February 1978
Y.V. Chandrachud 22nd February 1978 - 11th July 1985
P.N. Bhagwati 12th July 1985 - 20th December 1986
R.S. Pathak 21st December 1986 - 18th June 1989
E.S. Venkataramaiah 19th June 1989 - 17th December 1989
Sabyasachi Mukherjee 18th December 1989 - 25th September 1990
Ranganath Mishra 26th September 1990 - 24th November 1991
K.N. Singh 25th November 1991 - 12th December 1991
M.H. Kania 13th December 1991 - 17th November 1992
I.M. Sharma 18th November 1992 - 11th February 1993
M.N. Venkatachalaiah 12th February 1993 - 24th October 1994
A.M. Ahmadi 25th October 1994 - 24th March 1997
J.S. Verma 25th March 1997 - 17th January 1998
M.M. Punchhi 18th January 1998 - 9th October 1998
A.S. Anand 10th October 1998 - 31st October 2001
S.P. Bharucha 1st November 2001 - 5th May 2002
B.N. Kirpal 6th May 2002 - 7th November 2002
G.B. Pattanaiak 8th November 2002 - 18th December 2002
V.N. Khare 19th December 2002 - 1st May 2004
S. Rajendra Babu 2nd May 2004 - 31st May 2004
R.C. Lahoti 1st June 2004 - 31st October 2005
Y.K. Sabharwal 1st November 2005 - 14th January 2007
K.G.Balakrishnan 14th January 2007 - 12th May 2010
S.H.Kapadia 12th May 2010 - 28th September 2012
Altamas Kabir 29th September 2012 - 19th July 2013
Palanisamy Sathasivam 19th July 2013 - 26th April 2014
Rajendra Mal Lodha 27th April 2014 - 27th September 2014
H.L. Dattu 28th September 2014 - 2nd December 2015
T.S. Thakur 3rd December 2015 - 3rd January 2017
Jagdish Singh Khehar 4th January 2017 - 27th August 2017
Dipak Misra 28th August 2017 - 2nd October 2018
Ranjan Gogoi 3rd October 2018 - 17th November 2019
Sharad Arvind Bobde 18th November 2019 - Incumbent