The chief justice of the Supreme Court is appointed on the basis of seniority by the President of India.The nominees for chief justice of the supreme court must have an experience of being judge of highcourt for at least 5 years, or be a lawyer for 10 years in the high court. Appointments of other judges to the Supreme Court are made by the President in consultation with the Chief Justice.

The Chief Justice occupies courtroom no 1 of the Supreme Court of India. Amongst his/her responsibilities are the fixing of benches.

Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal is the incumbent Chief Justice of India. He was sworn in on Nov 1, 2005. His term as CJI will last until January 14, 2007. He succeeds R.C. Lahoti.

This is a list of former Chief Justices of Supreme Court of India.

H. J. Kania
M. P. Sastri
M. C. Mahajan
B. K. Mukherjea
S. R. Das
B. P. Sinha
P. B. Gajendragadkar
A. K. Sarkar
K. Subba Rao
K. N. Wanchoo
M. Hidayatullah
J. C. Shah
S. M. Sikri
A. N. Ray
M. H. Beg
Y. V. Chandrachud
P. N. Bhagwati
R. S. Pathak
E. S. Venkataramiah
S. Mukharji
Ranganath Misra
K. N. Singh
M. H. Kania
L. M. Sharma
M. N. Venkatachaliah
A. M. Ahmadi
J. S. Verma
M. M. Punchhi
A. S. Anand
S. P. Bharucha
B. N. Kirpal
G. B. Pattanaik
V. N. Khare
Rajendra Babu
R. C. Lahoti
Y. K. Sabharwal