#ImportantNews: The controversy over the alleged Delhi liquor-scam case before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma is no longer confined to courtroom conduct alone. Now more troubling questions of proximity, patronage, conflict-of-interest, and the appearance of bias have come to light. Several of the 23 dischargees in the case had formally sought Justice Sharma’s recusal from hearing the CBI’s challenge to their discharge. Even then, the judge has so far resisted calls to step aside, even as former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal himself appears in person to argue the recusal application. Arguments are now scheduled for Monday, 13 April 2026. In my last Case In Point column for @frontline_india, I had already revealed, through an analysis of all the 165 criminal revision petitions of the same category as Kejriwal’s case, that Justice Sharma clearly departed from her usual pattern of handling such matters and had taken an unusually strange interest in this case. That, along with many other details that if read in singularity can be met with a shrug, but when read together, reveals a troubling pattern and credible fears of apprehension of bias in the liquor case. These by itself had raised serious questions. You may read my piece here: frontline.thehindu.com/colum… What has surfaced now makes those questions HARDER to dismiss. Justice Sharma’s son and daughter—Ishaan Sharma and Shambhavi Sharma—have both been empanelled by the Union government before the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court. According to the empanelment details, both siblings were appointed on the very same days: 11 September 2025 for the Delhi High Court panels and 21 November 2025 for the Supreme Court panels. 1. Ishaan Sharma holds panels before both courts, including the highest Group A panel before the Supreme Court and Senior Panel Counsel status before the Delhi High Court. 2. Shambhavi Sharma, with mere four years of enrolment as advocate, too holds panels before both courts: Group C before the Supreme Court and Government Pleader before the Delhi High Court. 3. Ishaan Sharma also held a panel in the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), under the Union Housing Ministry, till at least 2024 (Check: sci.gov.in/sci-get-pdf/?diar…). 4. He also held a panel in the Delhi State Legal Services Authority since 2021 until at least the end of 2024 (Check: cdnbbsr.s3waas.gov.in/s395b7…). Panel counselship is among the most coveted forms of government legal patronage in the system. Ask any advocate and they will tell you how through these positions, the government allocates litigation, visibility, professional standing, and income. But the more important and troubling part is that they are positions held at the pleasure of the very government whose top law officers are now appearing before Justice Sharma in one of the most politically explosive cases in the country. And that is where the conflict sharpens. Of course, one need not prove an explicit bargain but justice must also be SEEN to be done, especially when it is a case of public interest. The test for seeking recusal of a judge is whether there exists a reasonable apprehension of bias and whether public confidence in the fairness of the process has been impaired. Like I had explained in my column, Indian law on recusal has long recognised that what matters is not just actual bias, but whether a litigant could REASONABLY FEEL that justice may NOT appear to be done. Here, several of the 23 dischargees feel justice may not be done impartially. And now this issue of one advocate, who happens to be the son of a judge, accumulating large number of panels within a relatively short post-enrolment period as an advocate. Ask any lawyer and they will tell you how many more accomplished, brilliant persons, with many more years as an advocate have failed to secure a panel through the formal process. The concerns are many. In this case, the question is whether a judge can continue to hear a politically sensitive challenge brought by the CBI, while her kin hold multiple Union government panels and receive work from the same legal establishment whose top officers allocate cases to them and are now appearing before her? Note this: as per one RTI reply I received, Ishaan Sharma was allocated 2,487 cases in 2023, 1,784 cases in 2024, and 1,633 cases in 2025. In both 2024 and 2025, he was allocated more case files than even Zoheb Hossain, the top, most publicly visible Enforcement Directorate lawyer—by 91 in 2024 and by 582 in 2025. This of course suggests the sustained and substantial allocation of state work before the son. The allocation is done by the topmost in the legal system. Also, this is not the first time that such questions of potential conflict of interest have arisen. In September 2024, I had highlighted the case of Padmesh Mishra, whose appointments across multiple union government and Rajasthan government positions drew scrutiny after his father, Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, was elevated to the Supreme Court. Check: x.com/SauravDassss/status/18… The unease then was the same as it is now: when the children of sitting judges begin to accumulate government panels and positions in unusual concentration, something a regular lawyer, perhaps much more brilliant and of more history of practice, can only dream of, particularly after or around the parent’s rise within the judiciary, the issue is of institutional credibility. And no one really needs to state that that credibility is already under strain. Recently, Justice Manmohan of the Supreme Court himself publicly flagged corruption in the appointment of panel counsels by the Union government, questioning whether such appointments are really being made on merit at all. In a system where even a sitting Supreme Court judge is warning that panel-counsel appointments may be infected by extraneous considerations, the appearance of conflict in the present case becomes still harder to shrug away. Check: x.com/barandbench/status/203… Seen in that light, the present controversy is again not whether Justice Sharma is actually biased. It is about whether the institution can credibly insist that there is nothing to see here. The CBI has just filed an affidavit supporting Justice Sharma. A judge who I have documented, as per her own orders, to show unusual interest in a politically sensitive matter now finds herself in a position where her own kind hold/held as many as SIX government panels between them, while their bosses continue to appear before her. Even if one were to assume the absence of any actual impropriety, does this arrangement augur well for the appearance of judicial independence, especially in this case? The question is whether this not enough evidence of apprehension of bias that should suffice for a recusal. That is the question the High Court ought to have confronted with seriousness. Instead, by resisting recusal in these circumstances, the judge is unfortunately deepening this very suspicion that it should have avoided at all costs, or at least for the sake of institution.

The manner in which Chief Justice Surya Kant’s bench is handling the #BengalSIR matter does not augur well for the institution at all. The apex court is increasingly being perceived as an active player in West Bengal’s politics, especially after today’s order directing an NIA investigation. Instead of deciding the constitutionality of the SIR process and laying down clear limits on the powers of a clearly partisan Election Commission, Chief Justice Kant’s bench appears to have taken a keen interest in ADMINISTERING the process itself, effectively ensuring that the SIR proceeds without any hindrance. The companion judges on the bench, Justices Joymala Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, have taken no objection to this approach, which is all the more disquieting. Certain observations from the bench, for instance, one not able to vote in this election can vote in the next, reflects a totally cavalier approach to serious allegations of mass disenfranchisement. These have only deepened concerns and invited further criticism of the court. At a time when the capture of a constitutional institution like the Election Commission is complete, the manner in which the Supreme Court has proceeded in this politically fraught matter raises dangerous questions about the role it is choosing to play. The Court’s INACTION and delay in the AAP-Delhi constitutional crisis created conditions that enabled a political outcome favourable to the BJP. In the Bengal matter, however, the Court is not inactive, but ACTIVELY engaged in a manner that may have significant political consequences for yet another opposition-led government. The Supreme Court’s role is to create a just, fair, and equal level playing field to the greatest extent possible. In the Bengal SIR case, the Court is being seen as creating something totally opposite. Chief Justice Kant’s bench ought to have confined itself to deciding the legality of the SIR process, particularly given that it was initiated just months before an election with great hurry, leading to mass disenfranchisement of citizens, rather than allowing the judiciary, including the state judiciary, to become entangled in the administration of a politically sensitive process. The use of judicial officers for the SIR process, the appointment of High Court judges as appellate authorities, etc. is the greatest sign of how the Supreme Court is being run like a Khap Panchayat. These do nothing but risk doing grave disservice to the institution of the judiciary, whose credibility ultimately rests on public trust and a perception of unimpeachable integrity. Once that image erodes, only chaos reigns supreme. Chief Justice Kant’s bench have totally ignored and disregarded these dangerous concerns. Might I add that equally troubling is the silence of the Bar, which is meant to act as a check on the Bench. Whichever way the Bengal elections unfold, the role of the Supreme Court judges in this episode will not be forgotten.

#TrailerOut | Pregnancy, ageing and years of labour can change a face. But when an AI system at an Anganwadi centre fails to register that change, women can lose access to nutrition support, while Anganwadi workers are left under pressure to make it work. What this system looks like from the ground. Reporting by @HeraRizwan1 Full video out soon. #Anganwadi #AI #Biometric #FacialRecognition #Exclusion #ICDS

AI summit should be about involving all stakeholders, not for PM @narendramodi to get his customary greedy photo-ops. Litany of complaints on day 1 over arrangements gone horribly wrong because all the focus had to be on Photo-jeevi PM. Shame!

From rage bait economy to AI slop and the weird rise of “6-7,” 2025’s Word of The Year selections point to one mood: digital nihilism. Which word hit your social media feeds the hardest? @tithaghosh explains #WordOfTheYear #MediaLiteracy

Trump saying Bernie was taken out of the race unfairly…my brain is leaking out of my ears

it’s a protest against capitalism

#Watch | Grokipedia uses AI to reframe history through tone and placement rather than fact. @tithaghosh spoke to journalist @HeraRizwan1 and linguist Dr Peggy Mohan about how AI can be trained to foreground one political ideology over another. Read here: boomlive.in/decode/inside-mu… #Grok #History #AI #Language

#Delhi: A high-intensity explosion ripped through a car near the Red Fort this evening. Unconfirmed reports say eight people are feared dead. 15 people are reported to be injured. The cause of the explosion is not known yet. Those injured have been taken to the nearby LNJP hospital. #BreakingNews #NewsUpdate

a muslim man becoming mayor of ny on the day dick cheney dies. what a world.

AI-generated history reels are going viral, sometimes telling stories that are entirely made up! The juicier the retelling, the higher the view count. @tithaghosh spoke with historian and author Anirudh Kanisetti (@AKanisetti) on why this demand exists, attention economies, and much more. #Watch ⬇️ Also read: boomlive.in/decode/ai-histor… #AI #History

Zubeen Garg’s sudden death in Singapore has devastated the Northeast, and the grief has echoed across rallies, vigils, and social media. And the public rage has brought on a storm of misinformation and conspiracy theories about his death. Journalist @Sanskrita_B reflects on the aftermath. @tithaghosh Read more: boomlive.in/decode/zubeen-ga… #ZubeenGarg #Misinformation #Assam #Singer

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LinkedIn announced that they will use our posts, profile, and resume to train its AI. And we’re all automatically opted in, unless we know how to turn it off. @tithaghosh explains how to take control of your data. #Watch #Explainer #PrivacyOnline #AI #LinkedInUpdate

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Today's daily roundup on journalism is out, featuring a new project from our Fellow @Karen_Rebelo, an important piece by @caoilfhionnanna and news from Gaza, Nepal and the US Click to read, share and subscribe linkedin.com/pulse/journalis…

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#Watch | With AI videos looking more realistic than ever, it might be a good time to ask ourselves - What happens when we can’t tell what’s real anymore? @tithaghosh explains Follow BOOM for more such AI awareness tips. #AI #Gemini #MediaLiteracy

Ever shared a viral post and then found out it wasn’t true? You’re not alone. The real question is: why did it feel true in the first place? The answer lies in human psychology. Read to know more ⬇️ #Misinformation #HumanPsychology boomlive.in/resources/the-ps…

Whatever happens, Mamdani wrote a new playbook for progressives He reached outside the base. He ran away from purity politics. He didn't run as "I'm the true progressive and you're not." He tolerated disagreement, embraced persuasion, and emphasized building common ground.