Chief Justice of India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 12/19/09 10:26 PM

Chief Justice of India

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
India
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 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 This article is part of the series:
appointment of court officials Politics and government of
general and other miscellaneous matters relating to supervision and India
functioning of the Supreme Court.

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

Parliament
Rajya Sabha Lok Sabha
The Chairman The Speaker
Contents
Judiciary
1 Appointment of Chief Justice of India Supreme Court of India
2 Trivia Chief Justice of India
3 Chief Justices of Supreme Court of India High Courts
4 Other notable judges District Courts
5 See also
6 External links Elections
Election Commission
Chief Election Commissioner
Appointment of Chief Justice of India Political Parties
National Parties
Under the Constitution of India, in terms of Article 124 the manner of State Parties
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 National Coalitions
Supreme Court. Therefore the process for the appointment of the judges to the Left Front
National Democratic Alliance
Supreme Court was followed for the Chief Justice as well. This in practice
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National Democratic Alliance

Supreme Court was followed for the Chief Justice as well. This in practice United Progressive Alliance
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 Local & State Govt.
thus the Chief Justice would be appointed in consultation with such other
Governor
judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts in the States as the State Legislature
President may think necessary. Here seniority did not mean the age but meant Vidhan Sabha
the seniority within the Supreme Court. Therefore the judge with the most Vidhan Parishad
experience in the Supreme Court was generally nominated by the Government Panchayat
and he would be appointed as the Chief Justice.
Other countries · Politics Portal
However this convention was breach on a number of occasions, most notable
Government of India Portal
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 for a period of 5 years or until his retirement or whichever
is earlier, or unless removed by impeachment

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 28 January 2000 could have been the first female Chief Justice of India
had she been appointed two days earlier. However on 26 January 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

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Took Originating Major decisions during tenure as Chief

No. Name Left office
office State Justice
16
15 August Bombay (now
01 H. J. Kania November AK Gopalan v. Union of India
1947 Mumbai)
1951
16
3 January Madras (now
02 M. P. Sastri November
1954 Chennai)
1951
22
Mehr Chand 3 January
03 December Lahore/Kashmir
Mahajan 1954
1954
22
B. K. 31 January
04 December West Bengal
Mukherjea 1956
1954
31 30
Sudhi Ranjan
05 January September West Bengal
Das
1956 1959
30
Bhuvaneshwar 31 January
06 September Bihar
Prasad Sinha 1964
1959
31
P. B. 15 March Bombay (now
07 January
Gajendragadkar 1966 Maharashtra)
1964
16 March 29 June
08 A. K. Sarkar West Bengal
1966 1966
30 June 11 April Madras (now
09 K. Subba Rao Golak Nath vs. The State of Punjab
1966 1967 Tamil Nadu)
Kailas Nath 12 April 24 February
10 Uttar Pradesh
Wanchoo 1967 1968
25 16
M. present
11 February December
Hidayatullah Chattisgarh
1968 1970
17
Jayantilal 21 January
12 December present Gujarat
Chhotalal Shah 1971
1970
22
25 April Kesavananda Bharati vs. The State of
13 S. M. Sikri January Punjab
1973 Kerala
1971
25 April 28 January
14 A. N. Ray West Bengal ADM Jabalpur v. Shivakant Shukla

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14 A. N. Ray West Bengal ADM Jabalpur v. Shivakant Shukla

1973 1977
Mirza 29
21 February
15 Hameedullah January Uttar Pradesh
1978
Beg 1977
22
Y. V. 11 July Bombay (now
16 February
Chandrachud 1985 Maharashtra)
1978
20
12 July Bombay (now
17 P. N. Bhagwati December
1985 Maharashtra)
1986
21
18 R. S. Pathak December 6 June 1989 Uttar Pradesh
1986
17
E. S. 19 June Mysore (now
19 December
Venkataramiah 1989 Karnataka)
1989
18 25
20 S. Mukharji December September West Bengal
1989 1990
25 24
Ranganath
21 September November Orissa
Misra
1990 1991
25 12
Kamal Narain
22 November December Uttar Pradesh
Singh
1991 1991
13 17
23 M. H. Kania December November Maharashtra
1991 1992
18
Lalit Mohan 11 February
24 November Bihar
Sharma 1993
1992
12
M. N. 24 October
25 February Karnataka
Venkatachaliah 1994
1993
25
24 March
26 A. M. Ahmadi October Gujarat
1997
1994
25 March 18 January Madhya
27 J. S. Verma
1997 1998 Pradesh
18
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18
9 October
28 M. M. Punchhi January Punjab
1998
1998
10 1
Jammu &
29 A. S. Anand October November
Kashmir
1998 2001
2
30 S. P. Bharucha November 6 May 2002 Maharashtra
2001
11
6 May
31 B. N. Kirpal November Delhi
2002
2002
11 19
32 G. B. Pattanaik November December Orissa
2002 2002
19 Best Bakery Case, T.M.A. Pai v. Union of
33 V. N. Khare December 2 May 2004 Uttar Pradesh India (reservation in private educational
2002 institutions)
2 May
34 Rajendra Babu 1 June 2004 Karnataka
2004
1
1 June
35 R. C. Lahoti November Uttar Pradesh
2004
2005
1
Y. K. 14 January Land Ceiling Case (M.C. Mehta v. Union
36 November Delhi
Sabharwal 2007 of India)
2005
14
K. G. OBC Reservation case (Ashok Kumar
37 January (incumbent) Kerala
Balakrishnan Thakur v. Union of India)
2007

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.

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Justice O.P. Chennappa Reddy (http://www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in/judges/bio/ocreddy.htm) for his

landmark decisions on constitutional law.

See also
Supreme Court of India
Constitution of India
Indian Law

External links
Official website of Supreme Court of India (http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in)
Photo Gallery of Former Chief Justices of India (http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/new_s/f_cji.htm)
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