As Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra's term comes to an end it's time to evaluate his 13-month-long tenure that featured major judgments, as well as a fair share of controversy.

Tenure

Justice Misra was the 45th Chief Justice of India and spent 13 months as the Chief Justice of India. The average tenure of a Chief Justice of India since Independence has been around 17 months.

Of the 44 judges before him, 22 of them (i.e. 50 per cent of them) who have served longer tenures than him.

While Justice YV Chandrachud was Chief Justice of India for almost 88 months (a little over seven years) from 1978 to 1985, the shortest tenure what of Justice K N Singh, who was chief justice for just 17 days.

Tenures of Chief Justices of India since 1950 (in months)

Data Source : Supreme Court of India Website

Declining tenures of Chief Justices

Data shows that tenures of Chief Justices has reduced over the decades since Independence. The line chart below shows how the average tenure of the Chief Justices has changed over time.

Change in Commulative Average Tenure

Major judgments by Justice Misra

While Justice Misra's tenure wasn't extraordinarily long, his tenure was among the most impactful given the verdicts that came during his tenure. Constitutional benches set up by the Chief Justice passed a number of important verdicts and a comparison with the last five chief justices gives a sense of how much impact this tenure has been.

Judgements of last 5 Judges

Click on the name to view their judgements

A timeline of Justice Dipak Misra as Chief Justice of India

Justice Dipak Misra's tenure as Chief Justice came with its fair share of controversy. It saw a showdown between the Chief Justice and four seniormost judges in the apex court. It also featured a standoff between the Supreme Court collegium and the government over the appointment of a judge. And in between all that, there were major judgments that have altered society and politics.