Who among the following was the first Chief Justice of India?

Concept: The Supreme Court of India was constituted under Part V of the Constitution and came into existence on 26 January 1950, replacing the Federal Court of India. From that day, the Court has been headed by a Chief Justice of India (CJI), and each successive CJI holds office in a fixed chronological sequence recorded in the Court's own history.

Application: Hiralal J. Kania took oath as Chief Justice on 26 January 1950, the very day the Supreme Court began functioning, and served in that office until his death on 6 November 1951. He is therefore recorded as the first Chief Justice of India.

Cross-check: Each of the other names appears later in the same roll of Chief Justices, not at its start:

• M. Patanjali Sastri succeeded to the office as the second Chief Justice, after the first Chief Justice's tenure ended.

• Mehr Chand Mahajan became the third Chief Justice, taking office in the mid-1950s.

• S. R. Das rose to the post later still, well after Kania, Sastri, and Mahajan had each already served as Chief Justice.

Since the Court's own founding-day record identifies Hiralal J. Kania as its inaugural head, he is the first Chief Justice of India.