The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judicial authority and the highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also has the power of judicial review. The Supreme Court,which consists of the Chief Justice of India and a maximum of fellow 33 judges,has extensive powers in the form of original,appellate and advisory jurisdictions.
The Chief Justice of India (CJI) (ISO:Bhārata kēMukhya Nyāyādhīśa) 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) the next Chief Justice,who will serve until they reach the age of 65 or are removed by the constitutional process of impeachment.
Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud was an Indian jurist who served as the 16th Chief Justice of India,serving from 22 February 1978 until 11 July 1985. Born in Pune in the Bombay Presidency,he was first appointed a Justice of 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.
Hans Raj Khanna was an Indian judge,jurist and advocate who propounded the basic structure doctrine in 1973 and attempted to uphold civil liberties during the time of Emergency in India in a lone dissenting judgement in 1976. He entered the Indian judiciary in 1952 as an Additional District and Sessions Judge and subsequently was elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court of India in 1971 where he continued till his resignation in 1977.
Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud is an Indian jurist,who served as the 50th Chief Justice of India from 9 November 2022 to 10 November 2024. He was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of India in May 2016. He has also previously served as the chief justice of the Allahabad High Court from 2013 to 2016 and as a judge of the Bombay High Court from 2000 to 2013. He also served as the ex-officio Patron-in-Chief of the National Legal Services Authority and the de facto Chancellor of the National Law School of India University.
Ajit Nath Ray was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India from 25 April 1973 till his retirement on 28 January 1977.
Chockalingam Raj Kumar is an Indian academic administrator who is the founding vice-chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University in Sonipat,Haryana,India,and the dean of the Jindal Global Law School.
Altamas Kabir was an Indian lawyer and judge who served as the 39th Chief Justice of India.
Ranjan Gogoi is an Indian former advocate and judge who served as the 46th Chief Justice of India from 2018 to 2019,having previously served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India from 2012 to 2018. He is currently a Member of the Rajya Sabha,having been nominated by President Ram Nath Kovind on 16 March 2020. Gogoi served as a judge in the Gauhati High Court from 2001 to 2010,and then was transferred as a judge to the Punjab and Haryana High Court from 2010 to 2011 where he later was the Chief Justice from 2011 to 2012. He is also a member of the Committee on External Affairs in the Rajya Sabha.
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 former Chief Justice of the Patna High Court and Delhi High Court. He is the nephew of Justice Ranganath Misra,who was the 21st Chief Justice from 1990 to 1991.
Sharad Arvind Bobde is an Indian judge who served as the 47th Chief Justice of India from 18 November 2019 to 23 April 2021.
Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana is a former Indian judge and journalist who served as the 48th Chief Justice of India.
Uday Umesh Lalit is an Indian lawyer and former Supreme Court Judge,who served as the 49th Chief Justice of India. Previously,he has served as a judge of Supreme Court of India. Prior to his elevation as a judge of the supreme court,he practised as a senior advocate at the Supreme Court. Justice Lalit is one of the eleven senior counsels who have been directly elevated to the Supreme Court. He is currently ‘Distinguished Visiting Professor’at Ashank Desai Centre for Policy Studies,Indian Institute of Technology,Bombay and Distinguished Visiting Professor at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences.
Brijgopal Harkishan Loya was an Indian judge who served in a special court which deals with matters relating to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was presiding over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case,and died on 1 December 2014 in Nagpur. A bench of the Supreme Court of India,headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra,on April 19,2018,dismissed the public interest petition (PIL),and stated the death to be natural and such petitions to be an attack on the Judiciary.
Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani is a former Indian judge and prosecutor,who last served as the chief justice of the Madras High Court. Previously,as a judge of the Bombay High Court,she notably upheld the conviction of several persons for the rape of a pregnant Muslim woman during the 2002 Gujarat riots,chastising investigative authorities for their inaction in the matter,and also refused parole for those convicted in the 1993 Bombay bombings. She retired in 2019,after refusing to accept a controversial transfer from the Madras High Court to the Meghalaya High Court.
Bengaluru Venkataramiah Nagarathna is a judge of the Supreme Court of India. She served as a judge of the Karnataka High Court from 2008 to 2021. Her father,E. S. Venkataramiah,was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India in 1989.
The Supreme Court of India under Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud refers to the tenure of Chandrachud as Chief Justice of India. The Chief Justice of India is often referred to as the master of roster as he allots the benches to cases and in that regard,has administrative jurisdiction. As Chief Justice,by custom,Chandrachud is the ex-officio Patron-in-Chief of National Legal Services Authority and the Chancellor of National Law School of India University. The tenure is Chandrachud as chief justice is ongoing and is expected to last till 11 November 2024. Chandrachud was appointed by the President of India Droupadi Murmu in November 2022. Among many things,Chandrachud's Constitutional bench struck down Electoral Bond scheme. He led the bench in DMRC v. DAMEPL case which was the first significant invocation of curative jurisdiction in contract law.
