There were, however, dramatic scenes at the meeting.
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The four former judges said in the statement that all rules and norms must be laid down clearly for allocation of cases.
Sitting judges of India’s top court, a decorated and powerful establishment, hardly ever interact with media, abiding by an unwritten custom to protect the integrity of their judgments. However, no details were immediately available as to how issues like the “selective” case allocation and certain judicial orders by Justice Misra raised by the four dissenters at their press conference on Friday last were sorted out.
The CJI and his political backers must take note of the support the four judges have received not only from the Opposition but also from various other sections. Justices Gogoi, Lokur and Joseph presided over court numbers three, four and five respectively as usual.
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal claimed that the Supreme Court crisis “has been settled”. “The meetings with the judges took place in a very cordial atmosphere”. The picture that this suggests is of a Supreme Court that is unable to address important and reasonable concerns raised by the Justices themselves on issues that have far reaching implications for the future of India’s democracy.
Today’s complaint has been filed under the “in-house” procedure for investigating complaints against judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court. One of the rebel judges was understood to have pacified the judge and expressed regret saying, “He was not their target”.
The real issue has been spelled out by an outspoken senior Supreme Court lawyer, Dushyant Dave, to a leading news website.
The Constitution Bench, which is likely to take up eight important cases, including the Aadhaar matter, in the coming weeks still comprises CJI Misra, A.K. Sikri, A.M. Kanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan. Next year, two more judges would retire thus bringing him into the list of the four senior most judges.
On Sunday, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra had met a seven-member delegation of the Bar Council of India and Supreme Court Bar Association President Vikas Singh and had assured them that the crisis would be sorted out soon and congeniality would prevail.
Dave had apparently tried to persuade Poonawalla by alleging that Justice Mishra was a “henchmen” of CJI Dipak Misra and hence the bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra was should not hear the case. The letter which they had written to the CJI a few months ago did not invoke any response from him.
The issue emerging from the public debate is about which judge or bench is competent to hear the Loya case.
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Admitting a PIL seeking a SIT probe by a retired CJI into the allegations of judicial corruption Justice Chelameswar ordered setting up a five senior most judges Constitution Bench for hearing the petition.
