Delhi Confidential: Supreme Court asks lawyers to avoid appearing for cases on mobile phones

Supreme Court on Monday asked lawyers to “avoid” using mobile phones for attending hearings through video conferencing and instead use laptops or desktops. A notice issued by the court’s Registry also advised them to use a stable Internet connection, preferably wired to avoid any disruption in the court proceedings and inconvenience to the judges.  Earlier in the day, Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, while hearing matters, expressed annoyance at the lawyers using mobile phones to attend hearings and said the counsel were not visible and that it was also causing audio issues. “Listen, we cannot hear you and we cannot hear these cases like this. Why can’t you use laptop or desktop,” the CJI asked a counsel.  In another case, the CJI said, “Lawyers are appearing from their mobile phones and are not visible. We may have to ban this mobile business.” He then told the counsel in the matter, “You are now practising in SC and appear regularly. Can’t you afford to have a desktop to argue?”

Tableaux Counter: The governments of Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu – all ruled by Opposition – have said that their tableaux for the Republic Day parade have been rejected. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue, saying the state’s tableau paid homage to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Incidentally, the CPWD’s tableau, which has been selected, also features Bose. The Centre has countered these charges by stating that an expert committee selects the tableaux, and of the 56 proposals this year, only 21 have been selected. It highlighted that each of these states have had their tableaux participate in previous Republic Day celebrations under Modi as the PM. Kerala had its tableaux in 2018 and 2021, Tamil Nadu had one in five out of six years, except 2018. West Bengal’s tableaux were on Rajpath in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021 Republic Day parades.

The Signal: After the BJP announced Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya as candidates in the first list itself, party circles are abuzz with speculation over Dinesh Sharma, the other Deputy CM. The names of Adityanath and Maurya were announced from Gorakhpur and Sirathu despite the constituencies going to polls in the sixth and fifth phases, respectively. Party leaders agreed that the move has elevated Maurya’s position and he is now being seen as a very significant figure, especially after the exit of another prominent OBC face, Swami Prasad Maurya. Keshav Prasad Maurya is also featured prominently in the campaign videos. But the party cadre, especially from the Brahmin community, are now keenly waiting to see what the party has in store for Sharma, who was also an MLC like Adityanath and Maurya.