CJI MISRA SHOULD ‘TAKE ALL JUDGES TOGETHER’, SAYS FORMER CJI LODHA

NEWDELHI: Former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha on Tuesday described the prevailing situation in the Supreme Court, where the top five judges appear to disagree on important issues such as allotment of cases, as “disastrous” and suggested “collective leadership” as a remedy to tide over the crisis.

Justice Lodha also called on Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra to “show statesmanship” and “take all judges together”.

“Undoubtedly, the Chief Justice of India is the master of the roster, but does it mean he can do whatever he wants? The allocation of cases has to be fair and in the interest of the institution,” Justice Lodha said at a function to release veteran journalist and former Union minister Arun Shourie’s latest book, Anita Gets Bail.

This January 12, the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court after the CJI — Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph — had held an unprecedented press conference highlighting their reservations on the way work is allocated by CJI Misra in the top court. NEW DELHI: Flyers will soon be able to make calls from their mobile phones and surf the internet on all flights in Indian airspace after the Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body at the department of telecommunications (DOT), approved the move, telecom secretary Aruna Sundarajan said.

“We will now have to create a separate category of licencees called in-flight connectivity provider. These will provide internet as well as voice services within Indian territorial airspace... in both domestic and international flights,” Sundararajan told reporters.