Order, order: Judges sing along on Kinglong

MUMBAI: It’s not every day that one gets to match musical notes with judges of the Bombay high court. Perched in the swanky Kinglong BEST bus, which the HC judges judiciously chose over their red-beacon cars to travel to Uttan on Thursday, the ride back to the city gave way to an enthusiastic game of Antakshari.

It wasn’t easy getting over the awe of watching the usually stern Justice JN Patel break into Ichak dana, beechak dana… from Shree 420. Ably supporting him was Justice Amjad Sayed, the youngest amongst them and an avid film buff, who belted out, Ye dil na hota bechara (Jewel Thief) among several other songs. Justice RMS Khandeparkar didn’t sing along. But he couldn’t restrain a hearty laugh each time his neighbour Adelene Rodrigues, registrar and prothonotary of the HC, broke into a Marathi number when a Hindi song failed to come to her mind.

Amidst the repertoire of Kajrare and Yamma Yamma, Justice Roshan Dalvi took time out of her engaging conversation with senior lawyer Rajni Iyer when the troupe sang a song to her liking. Justices JP Devadhar, AV Mohta, AP Deshpande, RS Mohite and JH Bhatia were silent supporters of the game.

The two-hour ride went past in a jiffy. In fact, the entire convoy of seven buses, of which only six reached the venue as one developed a snag en-route, reached Uttan in record two hours. With at least ten police pilots clearing the route, the elaborate traffic arrangements made the rush-hour travel seem a breeze. “The arrangement was made easier  by the fact that there was no usual long trail of VIP cars,” said a traffic policeman.