For the first time in the history of Indian democracy, four senior Supreme Court judges criticized the Chief Justice publicly. Chief Justice Dipak Misra was criticized by the senior judges at the residence of Justice Chelameswar. Justice Kurian Joseph, Madan B Lokur, and Rajan Gogoi accompanied him in the press conference at his residence in which they questioned the administration style and the allocation of cases of Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
Justice Jasti Chelameswar also released a letter that they had written to CJI a couple of months ago. The press conference was also important considering the tussle between the government and the apex court over the method of appointments to the High Courts and Supreme Court.
The event has divided politicians, lawyers, judges and analysists into two sides with one faction supporting the judges going public and others believing that they should have resolved the issue among themselves. This was an unexpected conference but the revelations were not that surprising.
Justice J Chelameswar said that they were compelled to call the conference because they could not hold themselves from speaking the truth. He was accompanied by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who is set to be next Chief Justice, Madan Lokur, and Kurien Joseph. He further added that this was an extraordinary event in the history of India and many unexpected things have happened in the last few months.
Many eminent figures including former Judge R.S Sodhi said that Chief Justice’s image was shown in poor light. He criticised the appeal made by the four judges and supported Chief Justice Dipak Misra. He said that the four judges should be impeached and that they showed immature behavior. According to him, the issues do not matter much but the way in which they presented these issues and showed the Chief Justice in poor light is unfortunate.
BJP spokespersons Sambit Patra said that the Congress was trying to get political mileage from the situation. He said that the party which has been rejected by the consensus was using the situation for its benefit.
The judges said that they were forced to break the rules of the principal of Judicial restraint. He said that they have already written a letter to CJI earlier expressing their concerns. They accused CJI of failing to take any steps. The institution of Supreme Court has to be preserved for the integrity of democracy in the country.
The allegations were refuted by the persons close to CJI, they said that all Judges in the apex court are equal and they are all treated equally and fairly. A judge cannot ask for a case to be allocated to himself and that the cases are allocated according to predetermined procedures. The events have certainly eroded the credibility of the top court. It is really very strange that in the top management of a country governing system also we are to observe this type of things. Really it is embarrassing for all Indians.
