Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta's new books 'The Bench, the Bar, & the Bizarre' and 'The Lawful and the Awful' let the law loosen its collar a little. They remind us that the often solemn long arm of the law still has a funny bone, and is equal parts absurd and unexpectedly witty.
Through amusing stories and anecdotes, we get to see the story behind every judgment, and remember that justice, for all its formality, is still a deeply human enterprise. My review of the books in Indian Express.
https://t.co/ZQjSxWevRf
A UPSC aspirant applied for a Copywriter job at our company. Expected salary: INR 25,000/month.
This person probably outprepared 99% of the country. Read more in 2 years than most of us will in a lifetime.
The cruellest thing about UPSC isn't how hard it is.
It's that missing it by 2 marks looks identical to never trying at all. Either you're an IAS officer, or you're starting over from zero.
Harshad Mehta - The Rise, Scam, and Collapse of India's Big Bull
Harshad Mehta was a stockbroker who became the biggest stock market celebrity in 1990s India.
People called him the Big Bull because he looked like a market genius.
His reported peak net worth was around ₹1,000 crore, or roughly ₹8,000+ crore today after inflation.
His lifestyle became legendary.
A 15,000 sq ft sea-facing penthouse in Mumbai.
Imported luxury cars including a Lexus, a rarity in India back then.
At his peak, he paid ₹26 crore in advance tax, making him India's highest individual taxpayer at the time, ahead of Dhirubhai Ambani.
He looked like the ultimate symbol of stock market success.
His famous quote:
"The stock market is never wrong. It is the people who are wrong."
But behind the glamour was one of India's biggest financial scandals.
Banks used to lend money to each other for short-term government securities deals.
Harshad allegedly used fake bank receipts to make banks believe securities had been delivered.
Banks released real money against those receipts.
That money was diverted into the stock market to push stock prices higher.
The estimated scam size was around ₹4,000 crore in 1992, which would be roughly ₹30,000 crore today after inflation.
ACC reportedly went from around ₹200 to nearly ₹9,000 during the frenzy.
Retail investors saw the rally and believed he had cracked the market.
On 23 April 1992, journalist Sucheta Dalal exposed the scam.
The Sensex crashed nearly 50% from its peak.
Banks lost money.
Retail investors got trapped.
Harshad faced 70+ criminal and civil cases, was convicted in one case, and died in 2001 at age 47 after a heart attack while in judicial custody.
Lesson - borrowed money can make fraud look like genius in a bull market.
Ending here with his quote - "Success comes to those who dare and act."
Mathews J. Nedumpara
98205 35428
22nd May 2026.
Conviction of Gulshan.
The conviction and sentence of Gulshan, a transparency activist, for contempt of court is most unfortunate, unconstitutional, and painful. His conviction has brought to the public domain the urgent need for the abolition of the draconian law of contempt altogether, or at least to make it in conformity with the fundamental principles of natural justice.
2. I believe it is high time all right-thinking people stand for transparency, accountability, and freedom of speech.
3.We believe that the injustice done to Gulshan is rectified through constitutional and legal means rather than through democratic means, namely Andolan, in the better interest of the institution of the judiciary.
4.NLC would be providing him all legal support whenever and wherever it is sought.