Justice Joymalya Bagchi was born in Calcutta on October 2, 1966. He will be in line to be the Chief Justice of India in May 2031. Bagchi will become CJI following the retirement of Justice K V Viswanathan on May 25, 2031, and have a relatively brief tenure of a little over four months. The Supreme Court collegium had recommended Justice Bagchi’s appointment on March 6. He stood first in the LLB examinations in 1991 and graduated fromCalcutta University. He enrolled as an advocate in November 1991 and began practising in both criminal and constitutional law matters. He was appointed as a judge of the CalCutta high court in June 2011. In January 2021, he was transferred to the Andhra Pradesh high court, before being repatriated to the Calcuttas in November 2021. He has also published several articles in law journals. The appointment helps strengthen the Supreme Court bench, which had been functioning with 32 judges against the sanctioned 34. He argued against the West Bengal government’s ban on Taslima Nasreen’s book Dwikhondito in 2003. As an advocate, he represented several public authorities, including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the K Bengal Port Trust, and the Cal cutta Electric Supply Corporation.