One evening in Mumbai, a young man tapped his phone at 10:32 pm and ordered a bottle of shampoo.

He didn’t need it. He hadn’t run out. He just… could.

Nine minutes later, it arrived.

He didn’t blink. Didn’t celebrate. Didn’t tell anyone. The order was forgettable. The speed, expected.

Now pause here.

Ordinarily, Justice Bela Trivedi would have retired today, 9 June.

But Justice Trivedi was no ordinary judge. One of the only eleven women to have ever been a judge at the Supreme Court of India, Bela Trivedi made both, history and headlines. A lot of it, however, was controversial.

Let’s start at the beginning. According to SCC Online, Justice Trivedi was the first woman judge of the Gujarat High Court to be elevated to the Supreme Court. She is also among a handful of judges who have risen steadily through the ranks — from subordinate judiciary to the top-most court of the country.

With Islamabad being appointed to key counter-terror committees at the United Nations Security Council, India is not proud to rank 14th out of 163 countries on the Global Terrorism Index 2024 with a score of 6.4.

The Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace, publishes this index annually since 2007. The score for each country is a weighted average of fatalities, terror incidents, injuries suffered, and hostages taken. Higher scores and rank imply higher terror impact.

Pakistan ranks second with a score of 8.4 out of 10, after Burkina Faso which tops the list as the worst affected. Australia ranks 46th and China 49th with an enviable score of 1.9.

Three United Nations Security Council conventions for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings (1997), Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (1999) and Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (2005) are the only available global guideposts. In 1996, India proposed to the UN Security Council a universal legal framework to counter terrorism. Sadly, it remains bogged down by disagreements over definitions: Should violent movements for national liberation be included? Should State-sponsored terrorist activities be included?