The Supreme Court has just closed a tender for the purchase of 50 top-of-the-line Apple Macbook Pro laptops as part of their drive to upgrade technology. Each of these laptops cost in excess of Rs. 1,20,000 ($2500), and the tender has been issued by the National Informatics Center, which also runs the Judgment Information System for the Supreme Court, the High Courts and some District courts.

It is being speculated that the system specification for a Windows Operating System (OS) is due to the fact that certain law-related software such as SCC Online are only Windows-compatible.

The tender also mentions Livescribe smartpen and dot paper, an audio application that is intended to keep track of arguments in long-pending cases, and arguments by various counsels that span a number of days.

Ajay Kumar, a tech-savvy law student of Christ University, suggests that the Supreme Court use Open Source software instead of Windows. He points out that government agencies across the world, from Brazil to Iran to France are on a drive to introduce open source software in order to ease the Microsoft/US stranglehold on the software markets. "OpenSource means free updates and no one-time cost of buying the software. This buying of Macbooks and Windows OS is unnecessary expenditure" he states.

Ajay also has issues with the Supreme Court's decision to buy Apple. "Why MacBooks?" he asks. "Have we run out of Indian-made hardware? What is wrong with HCL?" An interesting point, and one that a government currently on an austerity drive would do well to take note of.