Creating history in more ways than one, the Supreme Court accorded the status of senior advocate to 39 lawyers on Wednesday. Not only does the list take the number of women getting the tag this year to 21 – nine more than the total figure before that – but it also marks the first time a lawyer from Manipur has been given the status.

BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj was among the 10 women lawyers who were designated senior advocates on Wednesday.

With the new additions, under the leadership of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, the Supreme Court has given the designation to 100 lawyers this year alone. Of these, 21 have been women, which is a significant milestone since only 12 women advocates had been designated senior advocates in the history of the top court before 2024.

The 10 women on the latest list include Aparna Bhat, Anindita Pujari, India Sawhney and Kavita Jha. Ms Sawhney, 72, had filed the petition which had led to the Supreme Court imposing the 50% cap on reservation.

Ngangom Junior has also been given the status of a senior advocate, making him the first person from Manipur to get the designation. Some other people on the list are Nalin Kohli, Shadan Farasat, Rahul Kaushik, Rudreshwar Singh, MR Shamshad and Rishi Malhotra.

The list has lawyers in the 39 to 73 age group with K Parameshwar as the youngest and MC Dhingra as the oldest.

In January, the Supreme Court’s full bench headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud had given the status of senior advocate to 56 lawyers, of which 11 were women. Five others got the designation in March.

New Delhi:

The Delhi High Court on Monday pointed out several mistakes in AAP leader Somnath Bharti’s petition challenging BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj’s election in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls on grounds of alleged corrupt practices, and asked him to file a corrected one.

Justice Manmeet PS Arora said at the outset that there were a lot of typographical errors which made it difficult to understand the averments in the petition.

Even the reference to respondents in the petition did not correlate with the respondents mentioned in the memo of parties and synopsis, the counsel said.

The court gave Mr Bharti 10 days to file a corrected petition and listed the matter for further hearing on August 14.

When Mr Bharti’s counsel urged the court to issue notice to the respondents on the petition, the judge said, “There are too many mistakes. Correct the petition first. I can’t issue notice like this. I will simply adjourn it. Please file a corrected petition.”

Both Mr Bharti and Ms Swaraj contested from the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat.

While Mr Bharti secured 3,74,815 votes, Ms Swaraj got 4,53,185 votes as per the returning officer, the plea said.

The petition, filed under Sections 80 and 81 of the Representation of the People Act, alleged corrupt practices by Ms Swaraj, her election agent, and other persons.

The plea also alleged that former AAP minister Raaj Kumar Anand contested the election on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket to help Ms Swaraj by cutting into the vote share. Later, on July 10, he joined the BJP, the plea said.

It said Mr Anand was a minister in the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi and was active in campaigning for Mr Bharti till April 9 and suddenly resigned from the party on April 10.

On election day, the petitioner was shocked during his visits to booths across the constituency to see that Ms Swaraj’s booth agents had pamphlets displaying her ballot number, photo, election symbol and photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “was showing the same to the voters who had lined up in the booth to vote and asking them to vote for Ballot no.1”, the plea claimed.

“…such an act certainly qualifies to be a corrupt practice. This was also reported to the respondent no. 3 (returning officer) but all in vain,” it alleged.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday asserted that the BJP-led central government accomplished in 10 years what the Congress could not do even in 60 years of its rule. Addressing a poll meeting in support of BJP’s West Delhi Lok Sabha candidate Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Mr Gadkari asked people to vote for BJP if they want pollution-free air and water in the national capital.

“This election, in its truest sense, is for deciding the future of the country. I can tell you what the Congress could not do in 60 years, we did it in 10 years under Modiji. We have come to you with our report card,” he told the gathering.

Praising Sehrawat, he said if people support her, she would work towards development.

“Choose the lotus symbol and the BJP. If you want to see India becoming a ‘vishwa guru’, the world’s third-largest economy and want Delhi to be free from water pollution, noise pollution and air pollution, you should choose BJP. If these three things happen, the life span of Delhiites will increase by 10 years,” he said.

Mr Gadkari said the country does not lack money but honest leaders. “Only under an able leadership will the country prosper,” he added.

Talking about Delhi, he said that if the air pollution issue is addressed, the people’s medical bills will see a reduction.

“Even if I stay in Delhi for three days, I develop infection. There are problems in Delhi — traffic jams, pollution and lack of cleanliness. Nobody thought about addressing these issues in 60 years but only our government thought about Delhi,” he said, highlighting various projects in the national capital funded by the central government.

At another poll meeting in Moti Nagar in support of the party’s New Delhi constituency candidate Bansuri Swaraj, the former BJP chief asserted that India is changing because people gave opportunity to an honest leadership.

Remembering her mother and BJP the late Sushma Swaraj, he said she treated him like her younger brother.

“She stood behind me like a rock. I have two sisters and I consider Sushma ji my third sister. She did great work as Union external affairs minister. She is no longer with us.

“Bansuri is not standing in the polls just because she is Sushma ji’s daughter. Bansuri is educated, knowledgeable, has a vision, is polite and can strengthen your voice and solve your problems,” he added.

BJP National President J P Nadda held a road show in South Delhi Assembly Constituency in support of BJP candidate Ramvir Singh Bidhuri.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant also joined the campaign trail in Delhi.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)