Mumbai Underground

Age Gauge

While passing an order in a criminal case,a judge of the Bombay High Court asked the defence counsel the age of his client. Unaware of his client’s actual age,the counsel was caught off guard and said his client is 61. After flipping a few pages of the case file,the court said the appeal on the court’s record says that the appellant is 31. The defence counsel who stood corrected,apologised to the court. The court,however,said in jest,“We are aware that life is becoming stressful but let people not age so fast. Let him not become 61 from 31.”

Road rage

Refusing to entertain a revision application of a man convicted for rash and negligent driving,Bombay High Court insisted that he serve his three-month jail term and commented that it was because of such drivers that roads have become unsafe. Sensing that the court was in no mood to grant any relief to the defence,the prosecutor tried to strengthen his case but got a little carried away,saying,“The condition on the highways is very bad,your lordship. There are hardly any lights… the way they drive…” The court was quick to question,“So what is your police machinery doing about it?” Suddenly reminded of who he was defending,the prosecutor stood dumbfounded.

Grousing tiger

Jaidutt Kshirsagar,senior NCP leader and minister for the Public Works Department (Public Undertakings) gained a lot of favour among Congress cabinet ministers last week when he opposed the measly fund allocation to Marathwada,which is reeling under drought. At the cabinet,Kshirsagar complained that he has received only Rs 2 crore,whereas nearly Rs 10 crore has been disbursed to some of his colleagues in western Maharashtra for drought relief. Congress ministers who have been voicing the same issue for several months now were impressed with Kshirsagar,with some going out of the way to congratulate him. A senior Congress minister said,“Lage raho,Jaidutt bhai. You have done a good job by raising your voice on the matter. Keep it up.”

Tailpiece

The civic administration and corporators had a standoff at the standing committee meeting last week when the latter lashed out at the administration for not taking action on octroi agents issuing death threats to law committee chairman Makarand Narvekar. Corporators verbally attacked an irate Rajeev Jalota,the additional municipal commissioner. Jalota defended himself saying he had submitted his written remarks to the municipal commissioner. The argument ended with the opposition party members staging a walkout. Interestingly,members of the Shiv Sena or BJP,who Narvekar is known to be allies with,remained in their places.