List of chief justices of India
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. 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.
A new chief justice is appointed by the president of India with recommendations by the outgoing chief justice in consultation with other judges. The chief justice serves in the role until they reach the age of sixty-five or are removed by the constitutional process of impeachment. As per convention, the name suggested by the incumbent chief justice is almost always the next senior-most judge in the Supreme Court. This convention has been broken twice: in 1973, Justice A. N. Ray was appointed superseding three senior judges and in 1977, Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg was appointed as the chief justice superseding Justice Hans Raj Khanna.
A total of 53 chief justices have served in the office since the Supreme Court of India superseded the Federal Court of India in 1950.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, while Kamal Narain Singh, the 22nd chief justice, is the shortest-serving, for 17 days in 1991. As of 2025, there has been no woman who has served as chief justice of India. The current and 53rd chief justice is Surya Kant who entered office on 24 November 2025. He will have a term of 15 months which is due to end on 9 February 2027.
List of chief justices of the Federal Court of India
The Federal Court of India came into being on 1 October 1937. The seat of the court was in Delhi and it functioned until the establishment of the Supreme Court of India on 28 January 1950. The first chief justice was Sir Maurice Gwyer.;Key
| No. | Name | Image | Start of Term | End of Term | Length of term | Parent Bar / High Court | Appointed by | |
| 1 | Inner Temple | |||||||
| — | — | Madras | ||||||
| 2 | Inner Temple | |||||||
| 3 | Bombay |
List of chief justices of India
| Died in office | |
| Resigned |