Chief Justice of India List (1950-2023)

Who is serving the Office of Chief Justice Of India (CJI) currently? Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud has been appointed as the new Chief Justice of India on 9th November 2022. Justice Chandrachud is the 50th CJI and has taken over the post from Justice U.U Lalit who served a brief term as India’s 49th Chief Justice.

This article gives the list of Chief justice of India and their tenure. Knowing about the Chief justice of India is imperative for candidates preparing for various Government exams as questions based on CJI is asked under the Static GK part of the General Awareness Section. To know more about the government exams, refer to the linked article.

About 50th Chief Justice of India:

1. Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud is known for his description of dissent as the “safety valve of democracy”, and for being part of several Constitution Benches which have delivered landmark verdicts such as the Ayodhya land dispute judgement and K.S. Puttaswamy judgement which upheld the right to privacy as a Fundamental Right.
2. He was also part of the Benches that delivered path-breaking judgments on striking down the parts of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (decriminalising same-sex relations), the validity of the Aadhaar scheme and the Sabarimala issue.
3. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud will serve as CJI for a term of two years and his father, Y.V. Chandrachud is known for being the longest-serving CJI as held the position from February 22, 1978, to July 11, 1985.
4. He is a former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court and a former judge of the Bombay High Court.

Significance of the CJI Office:

Chief Justice of India is the head of the judiciary system in India. The chief justice is the head of the Supreme Court and is responsible for the allocation of cases and appointment of constitutional benches which deal with important matters of law.

Article 145 of the Constitution gives the right to the Chief Justice of India to allocate the respective matters of relevance to the bench of judges.

Candidates aspiring to appear for the various examination must be thorough with the List of Chief Justice Of India and can also download the PDF for convenient preparation.

List of Chief Justices of India

There have been 50 Chief justices in India to date. H J Kania served as the First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. The list of Chief Justice of India is given below:

CJI – Important Pointer

1. The President of India appoints the Chief Justice of India and the CJI can hold the office up to the age of 65 years. Also, CJI can be removed only through a process of impeachment by Parliament.
2. The Chief Justice of India submits his resignation to the President of India. The President of India administers the oath to the Chief Justice of India.
3. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court receives a salary of Rs.280,000 per month plus other allowances fixed for CJI. Article 125 of the constitution is related to the Salary of CJI of Supreme Court.
4. The first Chief Justice of India (Before independence) was Mr Sir Maurice Gwyer. He took charge on 1 October 1937 and remained in office till 25 April 1943. Mr M Gwyer was the CJI in the pre-independence era. Justice Harilal Jekisundas Kania was the first (Indian) Chief Justice of India.
5. Kamal Narain Singh was the shortest-serving Chief Justice Of India, he held the Supreme Court Office as CJI just for 17 days from 21st November 1991 to 12th December 1991.
6. Justice Y. V. Chandrachud is the longest-serving Chief Justice in India, who served 2696 days.
7. The current CJI, Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde is the 47th Chief Justice of India.
8. Fatimah Beevi was the first woman judge, as well as the first woman Supreme Court Judge of India. She was from Kerala and held the office of the Supreme Court of India from 6 October 1989 to 29 April 1992.
9. At present (November 2022), there are 27 SC judges in India including the Chief Justice of India. (Total sanctioned strength is 34 including CJI).

Check the Appointment and Removal of Supreme Court Judges in the link provided.

Now that you are aware of the personalities who held the office of CJI from 1950 to 2023 you can download the list of Chief Justice of India PDF for revision and reference.

List of Chief Justice of India PDF:-Download PDF Here

Aspirants can refer to the following links on important topics of the General Awareness Section for assistance in preparation:

CJI – Chief Justice Of India – Sample Question for General Awareness

To better understand the importance of CJI – Chief Justice of India topic for General Awareness section of competitive exams, it is necessary to know the type of questions asked in the examination. Hence, given below are a few Sample Question on the Chief Justice Of India or CJI of Supreme Court for reference.

Q.1. Who was the first Women Judge of Supreme Court of India?

1. Ranjana Desai
2. Fatima Beevi
3. Sujata Manohar
4. Gyan Sudha Mishra

Answer (2)

Q.2. The Chief Justice of India holds the office of Supreme Court of India till ___?

1. Till he attains the age of 65 years
2. Till he attains the age of 62 years
3. Till he attains the age of 65 years or 5 years of Tenure whichever is earlier
4. Till he attains the age of 62 years or 3 years of Tenure whichever is earlier.

Answer (1)

Q.3. The judge of Supreme Court of India i.e. (CJI) submits his resignation to____?

1. Speaker
2. The President of India
3. Law Minister of India
4. Senior Judge of the Supreme Court

Answer (2)

Q.4. The ____ article of the Indian Constitution is related to the establishment and constitution of the Supreme Court of India.

1. Article 90
2. Article 168
3. Article 68 & 69
4. Article 124

Answer (4)

Q.5. Justice H J Kania was the first Chief Justice from the Indian soil, who was the first-ever Chief Justice of India who served office before Independence?

1. C.D Deshmukh
2. Sir Maurice Gwyer
3. G.V. Mavlankar
4. Sir Robert W Pattrick

Answer (2)

The questions on Chief Justice of India are for your reference to understand the type and variety asked in the exams. Candidates are advised to go through previous years paper for understanding the scope of questions even better.

Aspirants of various government exams can refer the important links related to other sections of the exam given below:

Aspirants of UPSC exam and other competitive exams can check the links below for further assistance: