Supreme Court to have woman judge

The Supreme Court will very soon have a woman judge, after more than three years.

The Supreme Court collegium, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, has recommended the elevation of Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court Gyan Sudha Misra as a Supreme Court judge.

Justice Misra will be the fourth woman judge of the Supreme Court, after Fatima Beevi, Sujata Manohar, and Ruma Paul, who retired in June 2006.

The collegium has also recommended the elevation of Madras High Court Chief Justice H.L. Gokhale as a Supreme Court judge.

The collegium took these decisions at a meeting on Tuesday.

With these elevations, the strength of judges will go up to 29, as against the sanctioned strength of 31.

President Pratibha Patil had raised questions whether seniority was being overlooked in the appointment of some judges, when Justice C.K. Prasad was elevated to the Supreme Court. She had also suggested the appointment of a woman judge.

Highly placed sources said the collegium had considered the President's suggestions and decided to adhere to seniority in appointment.

While Justice Misra, who hails from Bihar, is the senior-most among women judges, Justice Gokhale, who hails from Maharashtra, is the senior-most among male judges.

The recommendations will now be processed by the Union Law Ministry before they are referred to the Prime Minister's Office. The file will then be sent to the President.

Bollywood shines at 56th National Awards ceremony

The 56th National Film Awards ceremony here Friday was high on the Bollywood quotient owing to the presence of celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut and Farhan Akhtar. President Pratibha Patil gave away the awards to the winners.

Bollywood bagged 13 awards at the ceremony.

Priyanka Chopra came in a white thread-work sari to receive the Best Actress award for her role in “Fashion”, Kangana walked up the podium in a black salwar-kameez to take the Best Supporting Actress award for the same film.

Arjun Rampal, who attended the award ceremony with his wife Mehr Jessia, looked suave in a black bandhgala suit when he received the award for Best Supporting Actor for “Rock On!”. Farhan Akhtar too was present at the event, where his debut movie as an actor was given the Best Film award.

Chinni Prakash and his wife Rekha Prakash received the Best Choreography award for the song “Azeem-o-shaan shehenshah” in Ashutosh Gowariker’s epic “Jodhaa Akbar”. The song depicts dance forms of different Indian states.

Fashion designer Neeta Lulla, wearing a plain green sari, received the Best Costume Designer award for styling actress Aishwarya Rai in “Jodhaa Akbar”.

Nandita Das’ directorial debut “Firaaq”, which was based on the 2002 Gujarat riots, won the awards for Best Editing for A. Sreekar Prasad and Best Art Direction for Gautam Sen.

Neeraj Pandey’s “A Wednesday” bagged the Indira Gandhi award for Best First Film of a director and Yash Raj Films’ “Roadside Romeo” bagged the Best Animation Film award.

Dibakar Banerjee’s satirical “Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!” was given the award for the best popular film providing wholesome entertainment, “Mumbai Meri Jaan” directed by Nishikant Kamat got the award for best special effects (“Govardhan“) and “Thanks Maa” has got Shams Patel the Best Child Artist award.

Marathi film “Jogva”, a poignant tale of one woman’s journey to break free from the shackles of discrimination, sexual oppression and servitude to find true happiness, bagged the maximum honours.

Its lead actor Upendra Limaya won the best actor award and the film was adjudged the best film on social issues. The movie also won two awards each for playback singers Shreya Ghoshal and Hariharan for the song “Jeev dangla gungla rangla”. Music composers Ajay and Atul also won the best music direction award for their songs for the film.

Annirudh Roy-Chowdhary’s Bengali project “Antaheen” got four awards, including for best feature film. The film, about love and loneliness, won awards for best cinematography and best lyrics, while Shreya Ghoshal won the award for best singer for the song “Pherari mon”. Shreya couldn’t attend the function and Roy—Chowdhary receieved it on her behalf.

Marathi film “Gandha” bagged two awards -- best screenplay for Sachin Kundalkar and best audiography for Pramod J. Thomas.

The award for the best film on family values went to Sooni Taraporewallah’s English film “Little Zizou” that revolves around the Parsi community.

Kannada film “Gubbachigalu” got the best children’s film award.

The special jury honour was given to Malayalam film “Bioscope”, produced by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and directed by K.M. Madhusudhanan.

The award for best direction went to Bala for Tamil film “Naan Kadauul”.

The winners of best feature film in regional languages are “Mon Jei” (Assamese), “Shob Charitro Kalponik” (Bengali), “Vimukthi” (Kannada), “Thirakkatha” (Malayalam), “Harishchandrachi Factory” (Marathi), “Vaaranam Ayiram” (Tamil) and “1940 Lookagramam” (Telugu).

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni was present at the event, which was compered by actress Divya Dutta.

'Sachin has climbed the Mt Everest of the game'

President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday congratulated Sachin Tendulkar for becoming the first cricketer to score a double ton in One-day internationals and said the “master batsman” has climbed the Mt Everest of the game.

“Sachin Tendulkar has yet again rewritten the record books of cricket, by climbing yet another Mt Everest of the game,” Patil said in a message.

She said in setting a new benchmark for the highest score by a batsman in One-day internationals as well as in notching up a double century, “the master batsman has set stiff targets” for future generation of cricketers to break.

Terming it a “magnificent achievement”, the Prime Minister said that Sachin has led by “example and that all Indians are proud of his achievement“.

Singh wished him many more glorious years in his cricketing career.

Tendulkar created history by becoming the first cricketer to score a double century in One-day internationals with a breath0taking unbeaten 200 to steer India to a massive 401 for three against South Africa in the second cricket ODI in Gwalior.