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.
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.
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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 India | Tenure |
| H.J Kania | 26 January 1950 – 6 November 1951 |
| M. Patanjali Sastri | 7 November 1951 – 3 January 1954 |
| Mehr Chand Mahajan | 4 January 1954 – 22 December 1954 |
| Bijan Kumar Mukherjea | 23 December 1954 – 31 January 1956 |
| Sudhi Ranjan Das | 1 February 1956 – 30 September 1959 |
| Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha | 1 October 1959 – 31 January 1964 |
| P. B. Gajendragadkar | 1 February 1964 – 15 March 1966 |
| Amal Kumar Sarkar | 16 March 1966 – 29 June 1966 |
| Koka Subba Rao | 30 June 1966 – 11 April 1967 |
| Kailas Nath Wanchoo | 12 April 1967 – 24 February 1968 |
| Mohammad Hidayatullah | 25 February 1968 – 16 December 1970 |
| Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah | 17 December 1970 – 21 January 1971 |
| Sarv Mittra Sikri | 22 January 1971 – 25 April 1973 |
| A. N. Ray | 26 April 1973 – 27 January 1977 |
| Mirza Hameedullah Beg | 29 January 1977 – 21 February 1978 |
| Y. V. Chandrachud | 22 February 1978 – 11 July 1985 |
| P. N. Bhagwati | 12 July 1985 – 20 December 1986 |
| Raghunandan Swarup Pathak | 21 December 1986 – 18 June 1989 |
| Engalaguppe Seetharamaiah Venkataramiah | 19 June 1989 – 17 December 1989 |
| Sabyasachi Mukharji | 18 December 1989 – 25 September 1990 |
| Ranganath Misra | 26 September 1990 – 24 November 1991 |
| Kamal Narain Singh | 25 November 1991 – 12 December 1991 |
| Madhukar Hiralal Kania | 13 December 1991 – 17 November 1992 |
| Lalit Mohan Sharma | 18 November 1992 – 11 February 1993 |
| M. N. Venkatachaliah | 12 February 1993 – 24 October 1994 |
| Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi | 25 October 1994 – 24 March 1997 |
| J. S. Verma | 25 March 1997 – 17 January 1998 |
| Madan Mohan Punchhi | 18 January 1998 – 9 October 1998 |
| Adarsh Sein Anand | 10 October 1998 – 31 October 2001 |
| Sam Piroj Bharucha | 1 November 2001 – 5 May 2002 |
| Bhupinder Nath Kirpal | 6 May 2002 – 7 November 2002 |
| Gopal Ballav Pattanaik | 8 November 2002 – 18 December 2002 |
| V. N. Khare | 19 December 2002 – 1 May 2004 |
| S. Rajendra Babu | 2 May 2004 – 31 May 2004 |
| Ramesh Chandra Lahoti | 1 June 2004 – 31 October 2005 |
| Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal | 1 November 2005 – 13 January 2007 |
| K. G. Balakrishnan | 14 January 2007 – 12 May 2010 |
| S. H. Kapadia | 12 May 2010 – 28 September 2012 |
| Altamas Kabir | 29 September 2012 – 18 July 2013 |
| P. Sathasivam | 19 July 2013 – 26 April 2014 |
| Rajendra Mal Lodha | 27 April 2014 – 27 September 2014 |
| H. L. Dattu | 28 September 2014 – 2 December 2015 |
| T. S. Thakur | 3 December 2015 – 3 January 2017 |
| Jagdish Singh Khehar | 4 January 2017 – 27 August 2017 |
| Dipak Misra | 28 August 2017 – 2 October 2018 |
| Ranjan Gogoi | 3 October 2018 – 17 November 2019 |
| Sharad Arvind Bobde | 18 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.