AFTER HE finished mentioning a matter for early listing on Tuesday, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani addressed Chief Justice of India TS Thakur. “You once asked me when will I retire? I must tell my lords that I am now 90 years old and I have already retired. I only take pro bono cases,” he said. The CJI then clarified that he never wanted Jethmalani to retire, and there seemed to be some misunderstanding. “Mr Jethlamani, I asked when will your client retire, not you. We never want you to retire. We want you to keep going on,” he said. Rallying Call THE GOVERNMENT may have got a lot of flak from the Opposition over demonetisation, but that has not stopped the BJP from pitching the decision as a strong move against corruption and black money among their supporters abroad. Som Mandal, lawyer-turned-BJP leader from West Bengal, has been spreading the word on this issue. Mandal is also using the opportunity to talk to party supporters on the need for Indians to speak in one voice on important issues. Poll Winds THE CONGRESS has often talked about announcing candidates for elections much in advance. In fact, every introspection panel after a major electoral drubbing had suggested this. For a change, the party is now preparing to finalise its first list of candidates for Punjab. The party’s central election committee, the panel headed by Sonia Gandhi which clears the list of candidates, is set to meet on December 3 to finalise, and perhaps announce, the first list of candidates for the Punjab assembly elections. As for Uttar Pradesh and other states which go to polls around the same time, the party is yet to set up screening committees for shortlisting candidates.
