Solicitor General launches two tomes on humour in court

At the launch of two books authored by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta about humour in the courtroom, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Sunday (May 10, 2026) said the top law officer must now turn his gaze to the Indian judicial system for his third book.

The CJI said there was “no dearth of comical tales from our own region. In fact, I am certain we have enough material in Delhi itself to fill a library!”

The Chief Justice said he would be more than happy to contribute to such an effort as he would be less tight-lipped after retirement.

Home Minister Amit Shah spoke at the launch of the books titled ‘The Bench, The Bar and The Bizarre’ and ‘The Lawful and The Awful’, which was attended by Supreme Court and High Court judges, law officers, senior advocates and others.

The CJI said he flipped through the books and wondered how Mr. Mehta spared the time to write amid his busy schedule.

“So I tried to solve this mystery! I have two running theories. Either Tushar Bhai has successfully petitioned the Almighty for a 25th hour in the day and kept that order strictly for himself, or he has discovered that the best time for comedic writing is while Court No. 1 is taking too long to read a file during a hearing. My money’s on the latter!” the Chief Justice said.

The CJI said the books were replete with hilarious anecdotes and incidents Mr. Mehta had collected after raiding law libraries, sifting through old case files and digging out obscure trial records that “read more like sitcom scripts than somber documents”.

The CJI promised the audience that the tomes had everything from dress code disasters, to AI hallucinations in judgments and pleadings to drunk and disorderly conduct

“He presents baffled witnesses, judges with a flair for the dramatic, and lawyers caught in the crossfire of their own hysterical missteps… The courtroom is where theatre meets law, and everyone has a starring role,” the CJI said.

Chief Justice Kant lightly remarked that Mr. Mehta’s deliberate omission of the Indian Bench from his book was probably not just editorial discretion, but actually his “heightened survival instinct”.

“You see, Tushar Bhai knows that if he wrote about our quirks, his next ‘mentioning’ would have been outrightly rejected in Court No. 1 [Chief Justice of India’s courtroom] without the scope of a review petition!” Chief Justice Kant said.