Obiter is grateful to professor Phil Thomas of Cardiff Law School for sending in a news snippet from the Hindu English language newspaper in India. A four-foot snake slithered into a judge’s chambers last month, and had to be ‘rescued’ by Fire and Rescue Service personnel, it relates. The snake was then safely handed over to Forest Department officials, the report said, and presumably released into the wild to live happily ever after.

Obiter is intrigued as to why it was the snake and not the judge that was deemed to be worthy of rescue, however. Does this say something about the esteem in which the Indian judiciary is held?