How aircraft internet aided CJI DY Chandrachud en route from J20 summit in Brazil

A Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud collaborated online to pass a judgment that upheld the district judges promotion policy of the Gujarat High Court. .Before pronouncing the judgment today, the CJI revealed that when he was travelling to India after the J20 summit in Brazil, he used aircraft internet to collaborate with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra to draft the judgment."We had to pronounce the judgment today and I was in Brazil for the J20 summit. So I used the aircraft internet and Justice Pardiwala shared the draft document with me, and Justice Misra was also on the same document," the CJI said..Justice Pardiwala added,"This is going to be close to my heart, since it travelled across Brazil and India."Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said on a lighter note,"This judgment will be cited by the airlines for the effectiveness of the airlines internet!".The Court also made it a point to appreciate the arguments made in the case by a junior lawyer."We do not speak of juniors...but in this case...When Mayur Raghuvanshi made her submissions in her rejoinder it tipped the scale towards the respondents.".The judgment was passed on a plea challenging decisions by the Gujarat government and the Gujarat High Court to make district judge appointments on the basis of merit-cum-seniority.The petitioners, who aspired to be appointed as district judges, contended that the same should have been on the existing principle of seniority-cum-merit, as per which seniority is given preference over merit.The top court had sought the response of the High Court and the State government in the main matter on April 13, 2023. However, four days later, the government had gone ahead and notified a promotion list. In its order passed on April 28, 2023, the apex court termed this development as 'very unfortunate'.It then stayed the decision of the Gujarat High Court and the subsequent State government notification to promote 68 judicial officers to the post of district judges based on the merit-cum-seniority rule.However, the Court had made it clear that the stay will not apply to those on the list who would get promoted based on merit alone, since they would anyway be promoted even if the promotion was based on giving precedence to merit over seniority.Among the 68 promoted was Surat Judicial Magistrate Harish Hasmukhbhai Varma, who had held Congress leader Rahul Gandhi guilty of criminal defamation in March and sentenced him to two years of simple imprisonment.