Jayalalithaa’s warmth steals the limelight

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The absence of the chief justice of India, S.H. Kapadia, was noted with a heavy heart by the lawyer fraternity which had gathered to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Madras high court at the Nerhu Indoor Stadium Saturday.

The judge, famous for his pro-active stand on the 2G issue and several other cause celebres in his term that is coming to an end later this month, was a notable absentee.

Lawyers were heard asking whether the CJI was annoyed in some way with the functioning of the Madras HC.

However, the chief justice in waiting, Justice Altamas Kabir, was there in the thick of it, joining the celebrations wholeheartedly in the company of the CJ of Madras HC, M.Y. Iqbal.

The warmth in the relations between the chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, whose arrival was greeted with thunderous applause at the venue, and the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, also drew many comments.

In this case all talk was happy as the scene augured well for a state ruled by a party that is not in the ruling UPA alliance at the Centre and is in fact a bitter foe of the ally, DMK, hitting it off with the Constitutional head of state.

Jayalalithaa’s ability to keep up winsome conversation would not have been lost on the President as the dup had also spent considerable time chatting at the Raj Bhavan earlier in the day.

The bonhomie meant the DMK missed out on passing on a petition to the President since he had to leave quickly for the festive event.

The chief minister was also seen greeting the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, quite warmly when she was observed the state protocol of going to the airport to see the PM off to the capital after his trip to Sriharikota where he had watched the historic 100th mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

It is said the wheels of justice grind on slowly but not so in the case of Justice Chandru, another notable absentee at the sesquicentennial.

The judge known for speedy rendering of verdicts, especially when it comes to cases involving issues in the public cause, was busy working away at the Madurai Bench of the Madras HC passing judgments in court on Saturday.