Chief Justice of India

Chief Justice of India
Bhārat kē Mukhya Nyāyādhīśa
Emblem of the SCI
Flag of India
Incumbent Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud since 9 November 2022
Supreme Court
Type	Chief Justice
Status	Presiding Judge
Abbreviation	CJI
Residence	5, Krishna Menon Marg, Sunehri Bagh, New Delhi, India[1]
Seat	Supreme Court of India, New Delhi, India
Nominator	Outgoing Chief Justice of India, generally on the basis of Seniority
Appointer	President of India
Term length	Until the age of 65 [2]
Constituting instrument	Constitution of India (under Article 124)
Formation	28 January 1950; 74 years ago (1950-01-28)
First holder	H. J. Kania (1950–1951)[3]
Succession	6th (on the Indian order of precedence)
Salary	₹280,000 (US$3,500) (per month)[4]
Website	sci.gov.in

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The chief justice of India (IAST: Bhārat kē Mukhya Nyāyādhīśa) is the highest-ranking officer of the Indian judiciary and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, as recommended by outgoing chief justice in consultation with other judges as envisaged in Article 124 (2) of the Constitution,^[5] the next chief justice, who will serve until they reach the age of 65 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. However this convention has been broken twice. In 1973, Justice A. N. Ray was appointed superseding three senior judges. Also, in 1977 Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg was appointed as the chief justice superseding Justice Hans Raj Khanna.

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.^[6] 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 who are bound to refer the matter back to them (for re-allocation) in any case where they require it to be looked into by a larger bench of more judges.

On the administrative side, the chief justice carries out functions of maintenance of the roster, appointment of court officials and general and miscellaneous matters relating to the supervision and functioning of the Supreme Court.

The 50th and present chief justice is Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud. He was sworn in as the 50th chief justice of India on 9 November 2022.^[7]