K. G. Balakrishnan

Konakuppakatil Gopinathan Balakrishnan (born 12 May 1945) is an Indian judge who served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India from 2007 to 2010, and later as chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of India. He was the first judge from Kerala and the first Dalit to become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He remained the only Dalit to have held the position until the elevation of Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai as Chief Justice in 2025. His tenure lasting more than three years has been one of the longest in the Supreme Court. While being Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court, he was appointed the acting governor of Gujarat from 16 January 1999 to 18 March 1999. In 2010, he was conferred with an honorary doctorate by Cochin University of Science and Technology.