List of Chief Justice of India – 1950 – 2020

Are you ready for UPSC Exam? Check your preparation with Free UPSC Mock Test

The Indian Judiciary System is an independent body. The Chief Justice of India is the head of the judiciary system in India. He heads the Supreme Court and is responsible for important matters of the law, allocation of cases, and appointment of constitutional benches in matters of law.

Article 145 of the Indian Constitution gives the Chief Justice right to allocate the respective matters of relevance to the bench of judges. Let us see the list of all Chief Justice of India from 1950 till date.

List of Chief Justice of India

Chief Justice of India

Sharad Arvind Bobde was a former Chief Justice in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. He was the part of the five-judge constitution bench which presided over the case of the Babri Masjid dispute.

He was also a part of a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court which clarified that Aadhar Card is necessary for the basic services and government subsidies.

H.J Kania was the first Chief Justice of India. He died while serving in the office. He had briefly served as an acting judge in the Bombay High Court and was appointed to office by Dr. Rajendra Parasad.

M. Patanjali Sastri was the second Chief Justice of India after H.J Kania died of a heart attack while in office. Even he was appointed to office by Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Sastri began his career in the Madras High Court. He also remained active in the International Law Association in Delhi.

Mehr Chand Mahajan was the third Chief Justice of India. Before this, he was the first Prime Minister in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir during the reign of Maharaja Hari Singh. He served as the President of the High Court Bar Association of Lahore from 1938 to 1943.

Bijan Kumar Mukherjea was the 4th Chief Justice of India. He had joined the Calcutta Bar in 1914. He served as the Judge in Calcutta High Court in 1936.

A.N. Ray was appointed as the Judge of the Supreme Court in 1969. He was the only dissenter among the 11 Supreme Court Judges that examined the constitutionality of the Bank National Act in 1969.

Engalaguppe Seetharamiah Venkataramiah was the 19th Chief Justice of India. Previously in 1970, he was the Judge in Karnataka High Court. He was the first-ever Judge from Karnataka to be elected as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Sudhi Ranjan Das was the first ex officio President of the Indian Law Institute which was formed only three years ago back then. He was one of the original judges of the Supreme Court when it was ushered into existence under the Constitution. He has also left impressive work and records behind.

Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha was the 6th Chief Justice of India from the state of Bihar. His grandson B.P Singh is also a former judge of the Supreme Court.

Bhuvaneshwar served as the Judge in Patna High Court, Chief Justice in Nagpur High Court, Judge in the Supreme Court following securing the Chief Justice of India position in the Supreme Court.

Mohammad Hidayatullah was appointed as the permanent Judge of the High Court on 13th September 1946. He also served as the Chief Justice of the High Court in Madhya Pradesh.

In his time, he was the youngest Judge of the Supreme Court. He also served as the Acting President in 1969 till the next President took his seat.

Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah began his career in Ahmedabad District Court. He served as the Judge of Bombay High Court for 10 years. After this, he followed to become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India in December 1970.

Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud is currently serving as a Judge in the Supreme Court. He is a former Chief Justice of the Allahabad Court and former judge of the Bombay High Court.

He has addressed the Sabarimala case – “change in mindsets” and also he has authored concurring judgment in the adultery law in India.

Ranganath Misra was also a member of the Rajya Sabha but was elected on a Congress party ticket. He was the only member of the Misra Commission of Inquiry into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

He was also the Chief Scout of the All India Boys’ Scout since 1992 and was also the first Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of India in 1993.

List of Chief Justice of India

                        Chief Justice of IndiaTenure
H.J Kania26 January 1950 – 6 November 1951
M. Patanjali Sastri7 November 1951 – 3 January 1954
Mehr Chand Mahajan4 January 1954 – 22 December 1954
Bijan Kumar Mukherjea23 December 1954 – 31 January 1956
Sudhi Ranjan Das1 February 1956 – 30 September 1959
Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha1 October 1959 – 31 January 1964
P. B. Gajendragadkar1 February 1964 – 15 March 1966
Amal Kumar Sarkar16 March 1966 – 29 June 1966
Koka Subba Rao30 June 1966 – 11 April 1967
Kailas Nath Wanchoo12 April 1967 – 24 February 1968
Mohammad Hidayatullah25 February 1968 – 16 December 1970
Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah17 December 1970 – 21 January 1971
Sarv Mittra Sikri22 January 1971 – 25 April 1973
A. N. Ray26 April 1973 – 27 January 1977
Mirza Hameedullah Beg29 January 1977 – 21 February 1978
Y. V. Chandrachud22 February 1978 – 11 July 1985
P. N. Bhagwati12 July 1985 – 20 December 1986
Raghunandan Swarup Pathak21 December 1986 – 18 June 1989
Engalaguppe Seetharamaiah Venkataramiah19 June 1989 – 17 December 1989
Sabyasachi Mukharji18 December 1989 – 25 September 1990
Ranganath Misra26 September 1990 – 24 November 1991
Kamal Narain Singh25 November 1991 – 12 December 1991
Madhukar Hiralal Kania13 December 1991 – 17 November 1992
Lalit Mohan Sharma18 November 1992 – 11 February 1993
M. N. Venkatachaliah12 February 1993 – 24 October 1994
Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi25 October 1994 – 24 March 1997
J. S. Verma25 March 1997 – 17 January 1998
Madan Mohan Punchhi18 January 1998 – 9 October 1998
Adarsh Sein Anand10 October 1998 – 31 October 2001
Sam Piroj Bharucha1 November 2001 – 5 May 2002
Bhupinder Nath Kirpal6 May 2002 – 7 November 2002
Gopal Ballav Pattanaik8 November 2002 – 18 December 2002
V. N. Khare19 December 2002 – 1 May 2004
S. Rajendra Babu2 May 2004 – 31 May 2004
Ramesh Chandra Lahoti1 June 2004 – 31 October 2005
Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal1 November 2005 – 13 January 2007
K. G. Balakrishnan14 January 2007 – 12 May 2010
S. H. Kapadia12 May 2010 – 28 September 2012
Altamas Kabir29 September 2012 – 18 July 2013
P. Sathasivam19 July 2013 – 26 April 2014
Rajendra Mal Lodha27 April 2014 – 27 September 2014
H. L. Dattu28 September 2014 – 2 December 2015
T. S. Thakur3 December 2015 – 3 January 2017
Jagdish Singh Khehar4 January 2017 – 27 August 2017
Dipak Misra28 August 2017 – 2 October 2018
Ranjan Gogoi3 October 2018 – 17 November 2019
Sharad Arvind Bobde18 November 2019 – Incumbent (till 23 April 2021)

Conclusion

The Chief Justice is an extremely important position in Indian society. An unbiased, honest person based on his merits and decision-making abilities is elected to take over this position. The Chief Justice of India has been involved in many important cases.

The Laws in India are amended at a considerable time, after reviewing it. The Supreme Court plays an important role.

We work very hard to provide you quality material
Could you take 15 seconds and share your happy experience on Google

follow dataflair on YouTube

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *