Complete Guide to Chief Justices of India GK Questions 2026

If there is one judiciary-related topic that appears year after year in UPSC, SSC, and Railway papers, it is Chief Justices of India GK questions. The list of Chief Justices is long with around 53 names (in 2026), but when you analyze the exam-relevant sections, there are certain patterns that show up.

A handful of landmark judgments, two controversial departures from convention, and one persistent gap are topics that current affairs sections usually love to test. So we’ve created this guide that not only gives you the list of Chief Justices of India with years, but also a deep dive into the CJIs who shaped constitutional law, the powers and appointment process of the office, 25 MCQs quiz to test your general knowledge, and a one-glance revision table. Let’s start with the complete chronological list.

Complete List of Chief Justices of India (53 CJIs)

Number	Name	Term
1	Justice H.J. Kania	26 Jan 1950 to 6 Nov 1951
2	Justice M. Patanjali Sastri	7 Nov 1951 to 3 Jan 1954
3	Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan	4 Jan 1954 to 22 Dec 1954
4	Justice Bijan Kumar Mukherjea	23 Dec 1954 to 31 Jan 1956
5	Justice Sudhi Ranjan Das	1 Feb 1956 to 30 Sep 1959
6	Justice Bhuvneshwar Prasad Sinha1	1 Oct 1959 to 31 Jan 1964
7	Justice P.B. Gajendragadkar	1 Feb 1964 to 15 Mar 1966
8	Justice A.K. Sarkar	16 Mar 1966 to 29 Jun 1966
9	Justice K. Subba Rao	30 Jun 1966 to 11 Apr 1967
10	Justice K.N. Wanchoo	12 Apr 1967 to 24 Feb 1968
11	Justice M. Hidayatullah	25 Feb 1968 to 16 Dec 1970
12	Justice J.C. Shah	17 Dec 1970 to 21 Jan 1971
13	Justice S.M. Sikri	22 Jan 1971 to 25 Apr 1973
14	Justice A.N. Ray	26 Apr 1973 to 28 Jan 1977
15	Justice M. Hameedullah Beg	29 Jan 1977 to 21 Feb 1978
16	Justice Y.V. Chandrachud 19	22 Feb 1978 to 11 Jul 1985
17	Justice P.N. Bhagwati	12 Jul 1985 to 20 Dec 1986
18	Justice R.S. Pathak	21 Dec 1986 to 18 Jun 1989
19	Justice E.S. Venkataramiah	19 Jun 1989 to 17 Dec 1989
20	Justice Sabyasachi Mukherjee	18 Dec 1989 to 25 Sep 1990
21	Justice Ranganath Misra	25 Sep 1990 to 24 Nov 1991
22	Justice K.N. Singh	25 Nov 1991 to 12 Dec 1991
23	Justice M.H. Kania	13 Dec 1991 to 17 Nov 1992
24	Justice L.M. Sharma	18 Nov 1992 to 11 Feb 1993
25	Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah	12 Feb 1993 to 24 Oct 1994
26	Justice A.M. Ahmadi	25 Oct 1994 to 24 Mar 1997
27	Justice J.S. Verma	25 Mar 1997 to 17 Jan 1998
28	Justice M.M. Punchhi	18 Jan 1998 to 9 Oct 1998
29	Dr. Justice A.S. Anand	10 Oct 1998 to 31 Oct 2001
30	Justice S.P. Bharucha1	1 Nov 2001 to 5 May 2002
31	Justice B.N. Kirpal	6 May 2002 to 7 Nov 2002
32	Justice G.B. Pattanaik	8 Nov 2002 to 18 Dec 2002
33	Justice V.N. Khare	19 Dec 2002 to 1 May 2004
34	Justice S. Rajendra Babu	2 May 2004 to 31 May 04
35	Justice R.C. Lahoti1	1 Jun 2004 to 31 Oct 2005
36	Justice Y.K. Sabharwal	1 Nov 2005 to 13 Jan 2007
37	Justice K.G. Balakrishnan	14 Jan 2007 to 12 May 2010
38	Justice S.H. Kapadia	12 May 2010 to 28 Sep 2012
39	Justice Altamas Kabir	29 Sep 2012 to 18 Jul 2013
40	Justice P. Sathasivam	19 Jul 2013 to 26 Apr 2014
41	Justice R.M. Lodha	27 Apr 2014 to 27 Sep 2014
42	Justice H.L. Dattu	28 Sep 2014 to 2 Dec 2015
43	Justice T.S. Thakur	3 Dec 2015 to 3 Jan 2017
44	Justice J.S. Khehar	4 Jan 2017 to 27 Aug 2017
45	Justice Dipak Misra	28 Aug 2017 to 2 Oct 2018
46	Justice Ranjan Gogoi	3 Oct 2018 to 17 Nov 2019
47	Justice S.A. Bobde	18 Nov 2019 to 23 Apr 2021
48	Justice N.V. Ramana	24 Apr 2021 to 26 Aug 22
49	Justice U.U. Lalit	27 Aug 2022 to 8 Nov 2022
50	Justice D.Y. Chandrachud	9 Nov 2022 to 10 Nov 2024
51	Justice Sanjiv Khanna	11 Nov 2024 to 13 May 2025
52	Justice B.R. Gavai	14 May 2025 to 23 Nov 25
53	Justice Surya Kant	24 Nov 2025 to present (term ends 9 Feb 2027)

Detailed Breakdown: Chief Justices Who Made History

First Chief Justice of India

Justice H.J. Kania took oath as the first Chief Justice of India on January 26, 1950, which is the same day that the Constitution came into force and the Supreme Court replaced the Federal Court of India. He has one of the shortest tenures in office. He died in office on November 6, 1951, making him the first CJI to pass away while serving, a fact that often appears as a paired trivia question alongside Presidents of India who died in office

Longest and Shortest Serving Chief Justices

Justice Y.V. Chandrachud holds the record for the longest tenure, serving for roughly seven years and four months from February 1978 to July 1985. At the other extreme, Justice K.N. Singh served as CJI for just 17 days in November-December 1991, which is the shortest tenure on record.

These extremes exist because, unlike the fixed five-year presidential term, a CJI’s tenure is determined entirely by how much time remains before they reach the mandatory retirement age of 65 under Article 124.

Appointment Process and the Seniority Convention

According to the Constitution, there is no detailed procedure for appointing the CJI, Article 124 just says that that the judges of the Supreme Court, including the CJI, are appointed by the President. Now, over the decades the convention that has been developed is that the outgoing CJI recommends the senior-most sitting judge of the Supreme Court as successor.

There have been two exceptions to this in history. The first one was in 1973 when A.N. Ray was appointed CJI when there were three judges who were more senior than him. All three of the judges ended up resigning. The second instance was in 1977, when M. Hameedullah Beg was appointed CJI ahead of Justice H.R. Khanna, who was senior to him and had also written the sole dissenting opinion in the ADM Jabalpur case during the Emergency. Khanna ended up resigning shortly afterwards.

These two incidents are often discussed in Indian Constitutional history as the reason why seniority convention was later reinforced by the Supreme Court rulings when it came to judicial appointments.

The Question of a Woman Chief Justice of India

As of 2026, India has never had a woman Chief Justice, even though several women have served as Supreme Court judges since Justice M. Fathima Beevi became the first woman judge of the Supreme Court in 1989. This gap is a frequently tested current affairs point.

Based on the seniority convention, Justice B.V. Nagarathna is expected to become the first woman CJI, with a projected tenure beginning in 2027 but this succession can be affected by retirements, resignations, or unforeseen changes.

Chief Justices With Notable Pre-Judicial or Post-Retirement Roles

Justice M. Hidayatullah, the 11th CJI, is one of the most cross-functional figures in this list. After his tenure as CJI ended in December 1970, he went on to serve as the acting President of India for a short period in 1969, between the death of President Zakir Husain and the resignation of V.V. Giri as acting President.

He later served as Vice President of India from 1979 to 1984, making him one of very few individuals to have held high constitutional office across all three branches.

Landmark Judgments and Notable Developments Associated With Chief Justices

Early Supreme Court Era

Justice H.J. Kania (1950-1951): As the first CJI, his short tenure set the early tone for how the newly formed Supreme Court would interpret the Constitution, including some of the earliest fundamental rights cases in independent India.

Justice M. Hidayatullah (1968-1970): Beyond his unique cross-branch career covered above, his tenure as CJI is remembered for steering the Court through a period of growing tension between the judiciary and the executive over property rights and bank nationalisation cases.

Emergency and Post-Emergency Era

Justice S.M. Sikri (1971-1973): Justice Sikri presided over the historic 13-judge bench in the Kesavananda Bharati case, decided in April 1973, which established the basic structure doctrine, the principle that Parliament cannot amend the Constitution in a way that destroys its basic features. This case is one of the most frequently asked topics in Indian polity exams.

Justice A.N. Ray (1973-1977): His appointment as CJI, superseding three senior judges, is one of the two well-known departures from the seniority convention discussed above. His tenure also includes the ADM Jabalpur case of 1976, decided during the Emergency, in which the Supreme Court held that fundamental rights, including the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21, could be suspended during a proclaimed Emergency.

This judgment was later widely criticised and was effectively overruled by the Supreme Court decades afterward, making it a frequent reference point in discussions of judicial review and civil liberties.

Justice M. Hameedullah Beg (1977-1978): His appointment, superseding Justice H.R. Khanna, is the second well-known departure from the seniority convention, discussed in the appointment process section above.

Justice Y.V. Chandrachud (1978-1985): As the longest-serving CJI, his tenure includes the Minerva Mills case of 1980, which reaffirmed and further developed the basic structure doctrine from Kesavananda Bharati, striking down provisions that sought to place constitutional amendments beyond judicial review.

Collegium and Liberalisation Era

Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah (1993-1994): His tenure coincided with the Second Judges Case of 1993, in which the Supreme Court interpreted the consultation process for judicial appointments to give primacy to the CJI’s opinion, formed in consultation with senior judges. This judgment laid the foundation for what became known as the collegium system, the mechanism by which senior judges, rather than the executive alone, play the lead role in appointing judges to the higher judiciary.

Recent Chief Justices

Justice J.S. Khehar (2017): India’s first Sikh Chief Justice, his tenure includes the landmark Justice K.S. Puttaswamy judgment of 2017, in which a nine-judge bench unanimously held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right protected under Article 21.

Justice Dipak Misra (2017-2018): His tenure included the Sabarimala temple entry case of 2018, in which the Supreme Court ruled on the entry of women of menstruating age into the Sabarimala temple, a judgment that generated significant public debate. His tenure is also remembered for an unprecedented event in January 2018, when four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court held a press conference raising concerns about the allocation of cases, an episode widely referred to in discussions of the CJI’s role as “Master of the Roster.”

Later that year, a group of opposition Members of Parliament moved an impeachment motion against him over related concerns, which was not admitted for further proceedings.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi (2018-2019): His tenure includes the Ayodhya title dispute verdict of November 2019, in which a five-judge bench unanimously decided the long-running dispute over the site in Ayodhya.

His tenure also saw a widely reported allegation of sexual harassment made by a former Supreme Court staff member in 2019, which was examined by an in-house committee of the Court; the committee’s findings were made public only in summary form. This episode is referenced in discussions of judicial accountability mechanisms.

Justice D.Y. Chandrachud (2022-2024): The 50th CJI, his tenure includes the constitutional bench judgment on the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, decided in December 2023, which upheld the 2019 reorganisation. His tenure is also associated with efforts to modernise court processes, including live-streaming of constitutional bench hearings.

Justice Surya Kant (2025-present): The current and 53rd CJI, he was part of the constitutional bench that upheld the abrogation of Article 370, and his tenure has included rulings on the sedition law under Section 124A IPC and the One Rank One Pension scheme for ex-servicemen.

Appointment, Tenure, and Powers of the Chief Justice of India

As mentioned above, the office of the Chief Justice of India derives from Article 124 of the Constitution. This establishes the Supreme Court and ensures that its judges, including the CJI, hold office until the age of 65, the mandatory retirement age. Again, unlike the President who has a fixed term of 5 years, a CJI’s tenure depends entirely on how many years remain before they turn 65.

Within the Supreme Court, the CJI holds the informal but powerful position often described as “Master of the Roster,” meaning the CJI has the administrative authority to determine which cases are heard by which benches and to constitute special or constitutional benches for matters of significant importance. This authority became a subject of public discussion during the events of January 2018 which have been described above.

The CJI also heads the Collegium, a body consisting of the CJI and the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, which recommends appointments and transfers of judges to the higher judiciary, a system that emerged from the Second and Third Judges Cases. Beyond judicial functions, the CJI performs an important ceremonial role: under the Constitution, the CJI administers the oath of office to the President of India, and in certain circumstances may also administer the oath to the Vice President.

Chief Justices of India GK Questions for Competitive Exams

We’ve covered quite a lot so time for a quick pop quiz. Here are 25 Chief Justices of India GK Questions to quickly check out how much you recall.

Chief Justices of India GK Questions Quick Glance

Conclusion

Chief Justices of India can feel like an overwhelming topic because the list runs to fifty-three names, but most exam questions cluster around a small set of recurring ideas: the first CJI, the landmark judgments tied to specific tenures, the two supersession episodes, the collegium system, and the still-unfilled position of a woman CJI.

Master these threads, revise the table above, and the fifty-three names stop feeling like a memory test and start feeling like a connected story. For more polity GK quizzes and current affairs MCQs, visit us daily.