JOIN USChief Justice Kapadia, who visited the blast site later in the evening, asked senior counsel and MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi to give a detailed note on the security arrangement in parliament complex and the estimated cost of putting in place a similar system in the court.
Singhvi, a Rajya Sabha member, was asked to provide details of the security regime in parliament, after the apex court bench of Chief Justice Kapadia, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar adjourned the Vodafone tax case on being informed about the bomb blast.
Senior counsel Singhvi, Harish Salve and Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman were present when the court was hearing the Vodafone issue. It is learnt that judges of the apex court held a meeting and decided to tighten the security arrangement and plug loopholes in the existing system.
Justice Altamas Kabir in the post-lunch proceedings of the court said: "We are going to take certain measure. You may like it or not." Justice Kabir said this after senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi told the court that after the last bomb blast at Delhi High Court in May no steps were taken to prevent the repeat of the same.
He said there were no CCTVs installed at the entrance of the court premises. Rohtagi told the court that it should manage its own security. Earlier before adjourning the hearing of Vodofone's tax case till lunch, Chief Justice Kapadia regretted that some of the lawyers opposed steps to streamline the security arrangement in the apex court.
He said that some of them even talked in terms of direct action to oppose any restriction to streamline security arrangements in the top court.
Chief Justice Kapadia hoped that someone from the present committee (elected members of the Supreme Court Bar Association) should talk about it.
As senior counsel Salve, who appeared for Vodafone, said that since the incident has happened, the people will think about it, the Chief Justice Kapadia said that "now it is late after the loss of lives".
Chief Justice Kapadia also visited the blast site at the high court in the evening. "Chief Justice Kapadia inspected the site along with Delhi High Court Chief Justice Dipak Misra and five other judges of the high court around 5 p.m.," said Additional Solicitor General and Delhi High Court Bar Association president A.S. Chandhiok.
"The chief justice of India stressed the need for beefing up security at courts across the country," said Chandhiok, who was with the judges at the blast site.
Several benches of the apex court earlier adjourned court proceedings as soon as they were informed about the bomb blast.
Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice H.L. Dattu were hearing bail pleas in 2G scam case after the court was informed about the blast by senior counsel Ram Jethmalani.
Adjourning the hearing, Justice Singhvi said: "It is very difficult to be mechanical and say that life will go on. Loss of human life is loss to the nation."