Supreme Court of India
Since the birth of the Republic of India on 26 January 1950, 43 people have served as the Chief Justice of India (CJI).While H. J. Kania is the inaugural CJI, the current incumbent is T. S. Thakur who was appointed as Chief Justice of India on 03.12.2015. Justice Y. V. Chandrachud is the longest serving Chief Justice (February 1978 – July 1985).
| Number | Name | Period of office | Length of term (days) | Bar | Appointed by | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | H. J. Kania | 26 January 1950 | 6 November 1951‡‡ | 649 | Bombay High Court | Rajendra Prasad |
| 2 | M. Patanjali Sastri | 7 November 1951 | 3 January 1954 | 788 | Madras High Court | |
| 3 | Mehr Chand Mahajan | 4 January 1954 | 22 December 1954 | 352 | East Punjab High Court | |
| 4 | Bijan Kumar Mukherjea | 23 December 1954 | 31 January 1956‡ | 404 | Calcutta High Court | |
| 5 | Sudhi Ranjan Das | 1 February 1956 | 30 September 1959 | 1337 | Calcutta High Court | |
| 6 | Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha | 1 October 1959 | 31 January 1964 | 1583 | Patna High Court | |
| 7 | Prahlad Balacharya Gajendragadkar | 1 February 1964 | 15 March 1966 | 773 | Bombay High Court | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan |
| 8 | Amal Kumar Sarkar | 16 March 1966 | 29 June 1966 | 105 | Calcutta High Court | |
| 9 | Koka Subba Rao | 30 June 1966 | 11 April 1967‡ | 285 | Madras High Court | |
| 10 | Kailas Nath Wanchoo | 12 April 1967 | 24 February 1968 | 318 | Allahabad High Court | |
| 11 | Mohammad Hidayatullah | 25 February 1968 | 16 December 1970 | 1025 | Bombay High Court | Zakir Hussain |
| 12 | Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah | 17 December 1970 | 21 January 1971 | 35 | Bombay High Court | Varahagiri Venkata Giri |
| 13 | Sarv Mittra Sikri | 22 Jan 1971 | 25 April 1973 | 824 | Lahore High Court | |
| 14 | Ajit Nath Ray | 26 April 1973 | 27 January 1977 | 1372 | Calcutta High Court | |
| 15 | Mirza Hameedullah Beg | 28 January 1977 | 21 February 1978 | 389 | Allahabad High Court | Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed |
| 16 | Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud | 22 February 1978 | 11 July 1985 | 2696 | Bombay High Court | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy |
| 17 | Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati | 12 July 1985 | 20 December 1986 | 526 | Gujarat High Court | Gyani Zail Singh |
| 18 | Raghunandan Swarup Pathak | 21 December 1986 | 18 June 1989‡ | 940 | Allahabad High Court | |
| 19 | Engalaguppe Seetharamiah Venkataramiah | 19 June 1989 | 17 December 1989 | 181 | Karnataka High Court | Ramaswamy Venkataraman |
| 20 | Sabyasachi Mukharji | 18 December 1989 | 25 September 1990‡‡ | 281 | Calcutta High Court | |
| 21 | Ranganath Misra | 26 September 1990 | 24 November 1991 | 424 | Orissa High Court | |
| 22 | Kamal Narain Singh | 25 November 1991 | 12 December 1991 | 17 | Allahabad High Court | |
| 23 | Madhukar Hiralal Kania | 13 December 1991 | 17 November 1992 | 340 | Bombay High Court | |
| 24 | Lalit Mohan Sharma | 18 November 1992 | 11 February 1993 | 85 | Patna High Court | Shankar Dayal Sharma |
| 25 | Manepalli Narayana Rao Venkatachaliah | 12 February 1993 | 24 October 1994 | 619 | Karnataka High Court | |
| 26 | Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi | 25 October 1994 | 24 March 1997 | 881 | Gujarat High Court | |
| 27 | Jagdish Sharan Verma | 25 March 1997 | 17 January 1998 | 298 | Madhya Pradesh High Court | |
| 28 | Madan Mohan Punchhi | 18 January 1998 | 9 October 1998 | 264 | Punjab and Haryana High Court | Kocheril Raman Narayanan |
| 29 | Adarsh Sein Anand | 10 October 1998 | 11 January 2001 | 824 | Jammu and Kashmir High Court | |
| 30 | Sam Piroj Bharucha | 11 January 2001 | 6 May 2002 | 480 | Bombay High Court | |
| 31 | Bhupinder Nath Kirpal | 6 May 2002 | 8 November 2002 | 186 | Delhi High Court | |
| 32 | Gopal Ballav Pattanaik | 8 November 2002 | 19 December 2002 | 41 | Orissa High Court | A. P. J. Abdul Kalam |
| 33 | V. N. Khare | 19 Dec 2002 | 2 May 2004 | 500 | Allahabad High Court | |
| 34 | S. Rajendra Babu | 2 May 2004 | 1 June 2004 | 30 | Karnataka High Court | |
| 35 | Ramesh Chandra Lahoti | 1 June 2004 | 1 November 2005 | 518 | Madhya Pradesh High Court | |
| 36 | Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal | 1 November 2005 | 13 January 2007 | 438 | Delhi High Court | |
| 37 | K. G. Balakrishnan | 13 January 2007 | 11 May 2010 | 1214 | Kerala High Court | |
| 38 | S. H. Kapadia | 12 May 2010 | 28 Sep 2012 | 870 | Bombay High Court | Pratibha Patil |
| 39 | Altamas Kabir | 29 September 2012 | 18 July 2013 | 292 | Calcutta High Court | Pranab Mukherjee |
| 40 | P. Sathasivam | 19 July 2013 | 26 April 2014 | 281 | Madras High Court | |
| 41 | Rajendra Mal Lodha | 27 April 2014 | 27 September 2014 | 153 | Rajasthan High Court | |
| 42 | H. L. Dattu | 28 September 2014 | 2 December 2015 | 584 | Karnataka High Court | |
| 43 | T. S. Thakur | 3 December 2015 | Incumbent | 206 | Jammu and Kashmir High Court | |