This is a list of all Chief Justices of India (CJI). There are a total of 46 Chief Justices of India that have served since the establishment of the Supreme Court of India in 1950, which superseded the Federal Court of India. The current Incumbent Chief Justice is Ranjan Gogoi, who entered office 3 October 2018.
The Chief Justice of India (CJI) is the head of the judiciary of India and the Supreme Court of India. The CJI also heads their administrative functions.
The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial court and the final court of appeal under the Constitution of India, the highest constitutional court, with the power of judicial review. Consisting of the Chief Justice of India and a maximum of 31 judges, it has extensive powers in the form of original, appellate and advisory jurisdictions.
Ranjan Gogoi is an Indian judge serving as the 46th and current Chief Justice of India since 3 October 2018. His term as Chief Justice ends on 17 November 2019. He is the first person from Northeast India to become Chief Justice of India.
The Federal Court of India came into being on 1 September 1937. The seat of the court was the Chamber of Princes in the Parliament building in Delhi. It began with a Chief Justice and two puisne judges. The first Chief Justice was Sir Maurice Gwyer and the other two judges were Sir Shah Muhammad Sulaiman and M. R. Jayakar. It functioned until the establishment of the Supreme Court of India on 28 January 1950.
The Federal Court of India was a judicial body, established in India in 1937 under the provisions of the Government of India Act 1935, with original, appellate and advisory jurisdiction. It functioned until the Supreme Court of India was established in 1950. Although the seat of the Federal Court was at Delhi, however, a separate Federal Court for Pakistan was established in Pakistan in Karachi after the Partition of India. There was a right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London from the Federal Court of India.
The Chamber of Princes was an institution established in 1920 by a royal proclamation of King-Emperor George V to provide a forum in which the rulers of the princely states of India could voice their needs and aspirations to the colonial government of British India. It survived until the end of the British Raj in 1947.
Sir Maurice Linford Gwyer, was a British lawyer, judge, and academic administrator. He served as Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University from 1938 to 1950, and Chief Justice of India from 1937 to 1943). He is credited with having founded the prestigious college Miranda House in 1948 in Delhi, India. Gwyer Hall, the oldest men residence for the university students is named after him.
№ | Name | Period of office | Length of term (days) | Bar | Appointed by | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sir Maurice Gwyer | 1 October 1937 | 25 April 1943‡ | 2,032 | Inner Temple | The Marquess of Linlithgow |
Acting | Sir Srinivas Varadachariar | 25 April 1943 | 7 June 1943 | 43 | ||
2 | Sir Patrick Spens | 7 June 1943 | 14 August 1947 | 1,529 | Inner Temple | |
3 | Sir H. J. Kania | 14 August 1947 | 26 January 1950 | 896 | Bombay High Court | The Viscount Mountbatten of Burma |
‡ – Date of Resignation
Since the birth of the Republic of India on 26 January 1950, 46 people have served as the Chief Justice of India (CJI). [1] While H. J. Kania is the inaugural CJI, the current incumbent is Ranjan Gogoi who is appointed as Chief Justice of India on 3 October 2018. Justice Y. V. Chandrachud is the longest serving Chief Justice (February 1978 – July 1985), while Kamal Narain Singh is the shortest serving one (21 November 1991 – 12 December 1991). Ranjan Gogoi is Incumbent Chief Justice.
Sir Harilal Jekisundas Kania was the first Chief Justice of India, dying in office in 1951. He was the chief justice of india from 1950 to 1951.
Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud was the 16th Chief Justice of India, serving from 22 February 1978 to the day he retired on 11 July 1985. Born in Pune in the state of Maharashtra, he was first appointed Judge to the Supreme Court of India on 28 August 1972 and is the longest-serving Chief Justice in India's history at 7 years and 4 months. His nickname was Iron hands after his well regarded unwillingness to let anything slip past him.
Kamal Narain Singh was the 22nd Chief Justice of India. He was educated at L.R.L.A. High School in Sirsa, Allahabad, Ewing Christian College in Allahabad and is a graduate of the University of Allahabad. At 17 days, his tenure as chief justice is the shortest.
The Chief Justice of the United States is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, and as such the highest-ranking judge of the federal judiciary. Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution grants plenary power to the President of the United States to nominate, and with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, appoint a chief justice, who serves until they resign, are impeached and convicted, retire, or die.
The Chief Justice of Canada is the presiding judge of the nine-member Supreme Court of Canada, the highest judicial body in Canada. As such, the chief justice is the highest-ranking judge of the Canadian court system. The Supreme Court Act grants plenary power to the Governor General to appoint—with the advice of the Prime Minister—a chief justice, who serves until they resign, die, are removed from office for cause, or attain the age of 75 years. By tradition, a new chief justice is chosen from among the Court's incumbent puisne justices.
Manepalli Narayana Rao Venkatachaliah was the 25th Chief Justice of India. He served as Chief Justice from 1993 to 1994. He currently serves as the Chancellor of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, a Modern Gurukula, a place where the teacher-student interaction occurs in the backdrop of the process of Integral Education that includes the five dimensions of: Intellectual, Cultural, Physical, Service and Devotional. and on the Advisory Board of Foundation for Restoration of National Values, a society established in 2008 that strives to restore National and Cultural Values of India.
Sudhi Ranjan Das was the 5th Chief Justice of India, serving from 1 February 1956 to 30 September 1959. Das also served as chairman of The Statesman.
Raghunandan Swarup Pathak was the 18th Chief Justice of India. He was the son of Gopal Swarup Pathak, a former Vice President of India.
Paul Daniel Dinakaran Premkumar was the Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court. He resigned from the post following allegations of corruption and subsequent removal proceedings.
Kesab Chandra Gogoi was an Indian politician who was the Chief Minister of the state of Assam for two months in 1982. He was member of the Assam Legislative Assembly from Dibrugarh constituency. He died on August 5, 1998. His son Justice Ranjan Gogoi is the 46th chief justice of the Supreme Court of India.
Justice Dipak Misra is an Indian jurist who served as the 45th Chief Justice of India from 28 August 2017 till 2 October 2018. He is also a former Chief Justice of the Patna and Delhi High Courts. He is the nephew of Justice Ranganath Misra, who was the 21st Chief Justice from 1990 to 1991. He succeeded J. S. Khehar, the 44th Chief Justice.
Kuttiyil Mathew Joseph is a judge of the Supreme Court of India. Earlier he was the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court. Before his appointment as Chief Justice of the High Court of Uttarakhand on 31 July 2014, he had served as a Judge of Kerala High Court for more than 9 years.
Palanisamy Sathasivam is the current Governor of Kerala, in office since 2014. He previously served as the 40th Chief Justice of India from 2013 to 2014. Sathasivam is the second judge from Tamil Nadu to become the CJI, after M. Patanjali Sastri. He is also the first former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to be appointed as the Governor of a state..He is the second ever BJP government appointed Governer of Kerala State.
NEF Law College, or in its full name National Education Foundation Law College, is a law school located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established in 2006 and it offers various undergraduate and postgraduate law courses. The NEF Law College is recognized by Bar Council of India and it also got a status of ' Section 2(f) of UGC Act, 1956 ' from University Grants Commission. The Law College is affiliated to Gauhati University.
The Supreme Court of India was in crisis after an interview given by Supreme Court judges Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur, and Kurian Joseph, in which they spoke against the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.
Ramayyagari Subhash Reddy is the judge of Supreme Court of India since 2 November 2018. Prior to his elevation to the bench of Supreme Court, he was the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court. He is set to retire on 4 January 2022.