Courting rain

Delhi received a welcome spell of rain on Thursday, bringing relief from the long spell of humidity.

Delhi received a welcome spell of rain on Thursday, bringing relief from the long spell of humidity. Thunder showers apparently lifted the spirits of the judges and lawyers in the Supreme Court too. A bench led by Chief Justice of India R M Lodha was hearing an election petition from Kerala in the afternoon when the showers started pouring. Justice Lodha said: “This is why we love hearing the matters from Kerala. They often bring Kerala showers with them.”

BOOSTING TRPs

Trial by media came under the lens of the Supreme Court Thursday even as a counsel pointed out that some of the lawyers are seen more on TV shows than in courtrooms. Chief Justice R M Lodha responded in a lighter vein, that it was perhaps helping the TRPs of the television channels and also helped lawyers become more popular. At this, another judge on the bench, Justice Rohinton F Nariman deemed it right to ask advocate Prashant Bhushan if what the CJI said was right. While the lawyers were in splits, Bhushan, who is often seen on TV shows as a guest for panel discussions, said he was in fact seen first in court and then anywhere else.

STORM WARNING

Home Secretary Anil Goswami may be in trouble for allotting work to senior officers in the ministry without the knowledge of Home Minister Rajnath Singh. It is learnt that Goswami allocated work to newly appointed Special Secretary (Internal Security) Prakash Mishra without informing the minister. Mishra, a senior IPS officer, is the head of the internal security in the country but has not been given any charge of Jammu and Kashmir and Left Wing Extremism (LWE), two key areas.

A PS, FINALLY

HRD Minister Smriti Irani has finally got a private secretary. Vinita Sriwastav was working with her informally but her appointment was not cleared by DoPT because she had worked with UPA minister Beni Prasad Verma. On Thursday, another officer, Binita Thakur, came to the ministry and was introduced to officials as PS of the Minister. While Vinita was an officer of Indian Railway Engineering Service, Binita is a 1996 batch IPS officer of Rajasthan cadre. Amongst other earlier assignments, she has served in the CBI. Vinita’s working had become difficult for Smirti as she was not formally cleared as PS and was signing documents as “O/o HRM” in place of “PS to HRM”.

LOST IN TRANSLATION

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the launch of ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’ was laced with humour and one-liners and often elicited laughter from those present. A section of the audience, however, maintained a blank expression throughout the speech. This comprised officials from various foreign embassies who had been invited for the event. With no translation available, Modi’s speech in Hindi was completely unintelligible to many. After the function, a Finance Ministry official was seen asking a group of the foreign diplomats whether they could enjoy the speech. While some offered polite smiles, others were more direct in saying that they could not understand much.

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