NEW DELHI: The five-member SC collegium led by CJI Sanjiv Khanna Thursday recommended Justice Joymalya Bagchi, a judge of Calcutta HC, for appointment as a judge of SC, which has two vacancies in its sanctioned strength of 34 judges. The collegium, also comprising Justices B R Gavai, Surya Kant, A S Oka and Vikram Nath, settled on Justice Bagchi after considering the judgments and judicial acumen of several judges and CJs of HCs, who were in the zone of consideration for elevation to SC.
If the Union govt accepts the recommendation, Justice Bagchi will supersede many judges across HCs and will be the second judge from Calcutta HC in the SC, which at present is represented by Justice Dipankar Datta. Justice Bagchi will be in line to become CJI on the retirement of Justice K V Viswanathan on May 25, 2031. He will hold office till Oct 2, 2031. After the retirement of Justice Altamas Kabir on July 18, 2013 as CJI, there has not been any CJI from Calcutta HC.
Justice Bagchi-led bench has handled sensitive cases relating to R G Kar Hospital rape-murder incident as well as the teacher recruitment scam. Interestingly, as a lawyer, he successfully argued before a special bench of Calcutta HC against the ban imposed by West Bengal govt on Taslima Nasreen’s book “Dwikhondita”.The collegium also recommended Calcutta HC judge Harish Tandon as Orissa HC Chief Justice. Orissa HC at present has an acting CJ in Justice Arindam Sinha, who was transferred from Calcutta HC to Orissa HC on Oct 8, 2021.