Chief Justice of India

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (May 2008)

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of India
Union Government
Elections
Political Parties
Local & State Govt.

Other countries ·  Politics Portal
Government of India Portal
 view • talk • edit 

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
  • 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

[edit] 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 in consultation with such other judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts in the States as the President may think necessary. 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.

[edit] Trivia

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (November 2008)
  • 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.

[edit] 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 15 August 1947 16 November 1951 Bombay (now Maharashtra) AK Gopalan v. Union of India
02 M. P. Sastri 16 November 1951 3 January 1954 Madras (now Tamil Nadu)
03 Mehr Chand Mahajan 3 January 1954 22 December 1954 Lahore/Kashmir
04 B. K. Mukherjea 22 December 1954 31 January 1956 West Bengal
05 Sudhi Ranjan Das 31 January 1956 30 September 1959 West Bengal
06 Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha 30 September 1959 31 January 1964 Bihar
07 P. B. Gajendragadkar 31 January 1964 15 March 1966 Bombay (now Maharashtra)
08 A. K. Sarkar 16 March 1966 29 June 1966 West Bengal
09 K. Subba Rao 30 June 1966 11 April 1967 Madras (now Tamil Nadu) Golak Nath vs. The State of Punjab
10 Kailas Nath Wanchoo 12 April 1967 24 February 1968 Uttar Pradesh
11 M. Hidayatullah 25 February 1968 16 December 1970 present Chattisgarh
12 Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah 17 December 1970 21 January 1971 present Gujarat
13 S. M. Sikri 22 January 1971 25 April 1973 Punjab Kesavananda Bharati vs. The State of Kerala
14 A. N. Ray 25 April 1973 28 January 1977 West Bengal ADM Jabalpur v. Shiv Kant Shukla
15 Mirza Hameedullah Beg 29 January 1977 21 February 1978 Uttar Pradesh
16 Y. V. Chandrachud 22 February 1978 11 July 1985 Bombay (now Maharashtra)
17 P. N. Bhagwati 12 July 1985 20 December 1986 Bombay (now Maharashtra)
18 R. S. Pathak 21 December 1986 6 June 1989 Uttar Pradesh
19 E. S. Venkataramiah 19 June 1989 17 December 1989 Mysore (now Karnataka)
20 S. Mukharji 18 December 1989 25 September 1990 West Bengal
21 Ranganath Misra 25 September 1990 24 November 1991 Orissa
22 Kamal Narain Singh 25 November 1991 12 December 1991 Uttar Pradesh
23 M. H. Kania 13 December 1991 17 November 1992 Maharashtra
24 Lalit Mohan Sharma 18 November 1992 11 February 1993 Bihar
25 M. N. Venkatachaliah 12 February 1993 24 October 1994 Karnataka
26 A. M. Ahmadi 25 October 1994 24 March 1997 Gujarat
27 J. S. Verma 25 March 1997 18 January 1998 Madhya Pradesh
28 M. M. Punchhi 18 January 1998 9 October 1998 Punjab
29 A. S. Anand 10 October 1998 1 November 2001 Jammu & Kashmir
30 S. P. Bharucha 2 November 2001 6 May 2002 Maharashtra
31 B. N. Kirpal 6 May 2002 11 November 2002 Delhi
32 G. B. Pattanaik 11 November 2002 19 December 2002 Orissa
33 V. N. Khare 19 December 2002 2 May 2004 Uttar Pradesh Best Bakery Case, T.M.A. Pai v. Union of India (reservation in private educational institutions)
34 Rajendra Babu 2 May 2004 1 June 2004 Karnataka
35 R. C. Lahoti 1 June 2004 1 November 2005 Uttar Pradesh
36 Y. K. Sabharwal 1 November 2005 14 January 2007 Delhi Land Ceiling Case (M.C. Mehta v. Union of India)
37 K. G. Balakrishnan 14 January 2007 (incumbent) Kerala OBC Reservation case (Ashok Kumar Thakur v. Union of India)

[edit] 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;

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

 This article about government in India is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Justice_of_India"
Personal tools