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Chief Justice of India

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The term Chief Justice of India refers to the highest judge in the Supreme Court of India. This also makes it the highest judicial position obtainable by a judge in India. The Chief Justice not only heads the administrative functions of the Supreme Court but also sits actively as a presiding judge in Court No. 1 of the Supreme Court of India.

On the administrative side, the Chief Justice carries out the following functions;

allocation of matters to various other judges of the Supreme Court
maintenance of roaster
appointment of court officials
general and other miscellaneous matters relating to supervision and functioning of the Supreme Court.

As the chief judge, the Chief Justice is also responsible for the allocation of cases and appointment of constitutional benches which deal with important matters of law. In terms of Article 145 of the Constitution of India and the Supreme Court Rules of Procedure of 1966, the Chief Justice allocates the work to the other judges who are bound to refer the matter to him in case they require the matter to be looked into by a bench of higher strength.

Contents

1 Appointment of Chief Justice of India
2 Trivia
3 Chief Justices of Supreme Court of India
4 Other notable judges
5 See also
6 External links

Appointment of Chief Justice of India

Under the Constitution of India, in terms of Article 124 the manner of appointment of the judges to the Supreme Court was provided. However there was no specific provision as to the appointment of the Chief Justice to the Supreme Court. Therefore the process for the appointment of the judges to the Supreme Court was followed for the Chief Justice as well. This in practice meant that the most senior judge in the Supreme Court would be proposed by the Government of India to the President who would approve the same and thus the Chief Justice would be appointed. Here seniority did not mean the age but meant the seniority within the Supreme Court. Therefore the judge with the most experience in the Supreme Court was generally nominated by the Government and he would be appointed as the Chief Justice.

However this convention was breach on a number of occasions, most notable of which was the appointment of Chief Justice A.N. Ray who was appointed as the Chief Justice superseding three judges who were senior to him. This was done during the time when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India. This was allegedly done as he was considered liberal and understood to be supporting the government in its actions and Indira Gandhi, who at that times was facing constitutional crisis, with her appointment being challenged by activist Raj Narain and major legal barriers remained to her continuance as the Prime Minister.

After the Emergency, the Supreme Court in a series of historical decisions conferred a lot of powers to itself. One of these was the declaration (in the constitutional bench S.P. Gupta - II case) that the Government of India would be bound to nominate only the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court for the position of Chief Justice, thereby ruling out any possible abuse by the Government or its ability to influence the judiciary. Since then the convention has been followed without any exceptions.

Once appointed, the Chief Justice remains in office until his retirement or unless removed by impeachment or by resignation.

Trivia

In terms of Article 60 of the Constitution of India the Chief Justice of India administers oath of office to the President of India.
In the absence of the Vice-President of India and the President of India, it is the Chief Justice who serves as the Acting-President of India.
The Chief Justice is the ex-officio Chancellor/Visitor to most autonomous law schools in India
There has been no female Chief Justice of India till date. Justice Ruma Pal, who was appointed as the judge of the Supreme Court on January 28, 2000 could have been the first female Chief Justice of India had she been appointed two days earlier. However on January 26, 2000, Justice Y.K. Sabharwal was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court and thus he acquired seniority over her by two days and went on to become the Chief Justice of India.
Justice H. J. Kania who became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was in fact the Chief Justice of the Federal Court of India, which was the predecessor to the Supreme Court of India, before being transferred to and being appointed the Chief Justice of India.

Chief Justices of Supreme Court of India

No.
Name
Took office
Left office
Originating State
Major decisions during tenure as Chief Justice

01
H. J. Kania
August 15, 1947
November 16, 1951
Bombay (now Maharashtra)

02
M. P. Sastri
November 16, 1951
January 3, 1954
Madras (now Tamil Nadu)

03
Mehr Chand Mahajan
January 3, 1954
December 22, 1954
Lahore/Kashmir

04
B. K. Mukherjea
December 22, 1954
January 31, 1956
West Bengal

05
Sudhi Ranjan Das
January 31, 1956
September 30, 1959
West Bengal

06
Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha
September 30, 1959
January 31, 1964
Bihar

07
P. B. Gajendragadkar
January 31, 1964
March 15, 1966
Bombay (now Maharashtra)

08
A. K. Sarkar
March 16, 1966
June 29, 1966
West Bengal

09
K. Subba Rao
June 30, 1966
April 11, 1967
Madras (now Tamil Nadu)

10
K. N. Wanchoo
April 12, 1967
February 24, 1968
Uttar Pradesh

11
M. Hidayatullah
February 25, 1968
December 16, 1970
present Chattisgarh

12
J. C. Shah
December 17, 1970
January 21, 1971
present Gujarat

13
S. M. Sikri
January 22, 1971
April 25, 1973
Punjab

14
A. N. Ray
April 25, 1973
January 28, 1977
West Bengal

15
Mirza Hameedullah Beg
January 29, 1977
February 21, 1978
Uttar Pradesh

16
Y. V. Chandrachud
February 22, 1978
July 11, 1985
Bombay (now Maharashtra)

17
P. N. Bhagwati
July 12, 1985
December 20, 1986
Bombay (now Maharashtra)

18
R. S. Pathak
December 21, 1986
June 6, 1989
Uttar Pradesh

19
E. S. Venkataramiah
June 19, 1989
December 17, 1989
Mysore (now Karnataka)

20
S. Mukharji
December 18, 1989
September 25, 1990
West Bengal

21
Ranganath Misra
September 25, 1990
November 24, 1991
Orissa

22
Kamal Narain Singh
November 25, 1991
December 12, 1991
Uttar Pradesh

23
M. H. Kania
December 13, 1991
November 17, 1992
Maharashtra

24
L. M. Sharma
November 18, 1992
February 11, 1993
Bihar

25
M. N. Venkatachaliah
February 12, 1993
October 24, 1994
Karnataka

26
A. M. Ahmadi
October 25, 1994
March 24, 1997
Gujarat

27
J. S. Verma
March 25, 1997
January 18, 1998
Madhya Pradesh

28
M. M. Punchhi
January 18, 1998
October 9, 1998
Punjab

29
A. S. Anand
October 10, 1998
November 1, 2001
Jammu & Kashmir

30
S. P. Bharucha
November 2, 2001
May 6, 2002
Maharashtra

31
B. N. Kirpal
May 6, 2002
November 11, 2002
Delhi

32
G. B. Pattanaik
November 11, 2002
December 19, 2002
Orissa

33
V. N. Khare
December 19, 2002
May 2, 2004
Uttar Pradesh

34
Rajendra Babu
May 2, 2004
June 1, 2004
Karnataka

35
R. C. Lahoti
June 1, 2004
November 1, 2005
Uttar Pradesh

36
Y. K. Sabharwal
November 1, 2005
January 14, 2007
Delhi
Land Ceiling Case (M.C. Mehta v. Union of India)

37
K. G. Balakrishnan
January 14, 2007
(incumbent)
Kerala
reservation case (Youth for Equality v. Union of India)

Other notable judges

Since the appointment to the office of the Chief Justice of India has been by convention on basis of seniority, the procedure has been criticised by various jurists and cosntitutional experts as being averse to talent and non-recognition of leading abilities. On this count various judges of the Supreme Court are named who showed inspiring leadership ability but because of the seniority rule could not become the Chief Justice of India. Some of these names have been;

Justice H.R. Khanna who delivered the landmark dissent in Habeas Corpus case.
Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer known for his human right approach and literary merit in decision-making.
Justice R.S. Sarkaria known for his immaculate understanding of Administrative law etc.
Justice O.P. Chennappa Reddy for his landmark decisions on constitutional law.