The chief justice of India is the highest-ranking officer of the Indian judiciary and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India. As head of the Supreme Court, the chief justice is responsible for the allocation of cases and appointment of constitutional benches which deal with important matters of law.^[1] In accordance with Article 145 of the Constitution of India and the Supreme Court Rules of Procedure of 1966, the chief justice allocates all work to the other judges.^[2]

A new chief justice is appointed by the president of India with recommendations by the outgoing chief justice in consultation with other judges.^[3] The chief justice serves in the role until they reach the age of sixty-five or are removed by the constitutional process of impeachment.^[2] As per convention, the name suggested by the incumbent chief justice is almost always the next senior-most judge in the Supreme Court. However this convention has been broken twice. In 1973, Justice A. N. Ray was appointed superseding three senior judges. Also, in 1977 Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg was appointed as the chief justice superseding Justice Hans Raj Khanna.^[4]

A total of 50 Chief Justices of India have served in the office since the Supreme Court of India superseded the Federal Court of India in 1950. Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud, the 16th chief justice, is the longest-serving chief justice, serving over seven years (February 1978 – July 1985), while Kamal Narain Singh, the 22nd chief justice, is the shortest-serving, for 17 days in 1991. As of 2024, there has been no woman who has served as chief justice of India. The current and 50th Chief Justice is Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, who entered office on 9 November 2022.^[5][6]

The Federal Court of India came into being on 1 October 1937.^[7] The seat of the court was in Delhi^[8] and it functioned until the establishment of the Supreme Court of India on 28 January 1950. The first chief justice was Sir Maurice Gwyer.

More information No., Name (birth–death) ...

Chief Justices of the Federal Court of India

No.	Name (birth–death)	Image	Start of Term	End of Term	Length of term	Bar	Appointed by (Governor-General of India)	Ref.
1	Sir Maurice Linford Gwyer (1878–1952)		1 October 1937	25 April 1943	5 years, 206 days	Inner Temple	Victor Hope	[9]
Acting	Sir Srinivas Varadachariar‡ (1881–1970)		25 April 1943	7 June 1943	43 days	Madras
2	Sir William Patrick Spens (1885–1973)		7 June 1943	13 August 1947	4 years, 68 days	Inner Temple
3	Harilal Jekisundas Kania (1890–1951)		14 August 1947	26 January 1950	2 years, 165 days	Bombay	Louis Mountbatten	[10]

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• List of current Indian chief justices
• List of sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India
• List of female judges of the Supreme Court of India
• List of former judges of the Supreme Court of India