New Delhi Mar 30 PTI Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Wednesday said the Supreme Court will commence physical hearing of cases from April 4The announcement from the CJI came before the commencement of proceedings in the top court for the dayMonday and Friday we will provide links for virtual hearing if advocates want Ramana saidSupreme Court Bar Association president Vikas Singh thanked the bench for the decision PTI PKS NSD NSD

New Delhi Mar 23 PTI Former Chief Justice of India Ramesh Chandra Lahoti died at a hospital here on Wednesday evening family sources saidHe was 81 years oldJustice Lahoti was appointed as the 35th chief justice of India on June 1 2004 He retired on November 1 2005Born on November 1 1940 he joined the Bar in Guna district in 1960 and enrolled as an advocate in 1962 He was recruited directly to the bench in April 1977 from the Bar to the State Higher Judicial Service and was appointed as a district and sessions judge After serving in the post for a year Justice Lohati resigned in May 1978 and returned to the Bar to practice mainly in the High Court He was appointed an additional judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on May 3 1988 and made a permanent judge on August 4 the next yearHe was transferred to Delhi High Court on February 7 1994 and later appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court on December 9 1998 PTI PKS NSD NSD

New Delhi Oct 27 PTI Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said the Supreme Court cannot be stymied by witnesses failure to appear or members refusing to sign attendance register -- the means by which -- the Congress MP alleged the parliamentary panel on IT was thwarted from looking into the Pegasus issueThe remarks by the chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology came after the Supreme Court appointed a three-member panel of cyber experts to probe the alleged use of Pegasus spyware for surveillance of certain people in IndiaSupreme Court orders inquiry into GoIs Government of Indias use of Pegasus spyware Just as well the SC cannot be stymied by the failure of witnesses to appear when summoned or members refusing to sign the attendance register -- the means by which the Parl Cmt was thwarted Tharoor tweetedThe Tharoor-headed IT panel was to hold a meeting on July 28 during which several issues including the Pegasus snooping allegations were expected to be discussedIt had also summoned officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Communications Department of Telecommunications on the subject Citizens data security and privacyHowever the meeting could not take place as the BJP members of the panel did not sign the attendance register even though they were present in the meeting room leading to a lack of quorumE-mail communications were received by the committee branch of the secretariat on July 28 afternoon from the three ministriesdepartment that their representatives would not be able to appear before the committee due to Parliament-related workTharoor had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to take action over ministry officials not attending the panel meetingIn a significant verdict over the issue of protecting citizens right to privacy a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana asserted that in a democratic country governed by the rule of law indiscriminate spying on individuals cannot be allowed except with sufficient statutory safeguards by following the procedure established by law under the ConstitutionStating that it was compelled to take up the cause to determine the truth and get to the bottom of the spying allegations the SC said the entire citizenry is affected by these charges due to the potential chilling effect lamenting that no clear stand was taken by the Centre regarding actions taken by it over the Pegasus row PTI ASK NSD NSD