The four Supreme Court judges who said cases of “far-reaching consequences” were being allocated without transparency, it was “business as usual” regardless of the roster of cases, which is decided by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. The rift between Dipak Misra, and the four Supreme Court judges who took him on publicly, has been settled in an informal meeting, Attorney General KK Venugopal said today.
Dipak Misra today met the four judges who had criticised him publicly, and discussed “all issues”, top sources have told a TV channel. “The ice has started melting,” said the sources, delivering another twist in the story after Attorney General KK Venugopal said that the dispute remained unresolved. One of the main triggers of the unprecedented rift, the case related to judge BH Loya’s death, was taken up today by the Supreme Court.
The Chief Justice had a “long discussion” with Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph on issues they had raised in a press conference last week. The judges will continue their discussions tomorrow, sources said, adding that “things are moving in the right direction”. The four judges– who are the senior most after the Chief Justice– have been kept out of a constitution bench announced yesterday for eight important cases. If that will change after the talks, it is not clear.
Earlier, routine coffee at the start of the day provoked talk as the staff was asked to leave the lounge where the Chief Justice and other judges usually sit together and chat. People familiar with the matter said for the four “rebel” judges, it was “business as usual” regardless of the roster of cases, which is decided by the Chief Justice.
Bar Council of India Chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra said it was an internal issue and has now been resolved. “As you can see that the matter has been laid to rest and all courts rooms in the Supreme Court are functioning normally,” he told reporters today. On Sunday, a team from the Bar Council of India– the regulatory body of lawyers– met with Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra as part of its efforts to resolve the unprecedented crisis that hit the judiciary after four most senior judges of the Supreme Court took him on in public on Friday.
The judges went public against the Chief Justice after the judge Loya case was assigned to Justice Arun Mishra, who is number 10 in the Supreme Court hierarchy. Speaking to the media on Friday, they criticized the way sensitive cases were being assigned “without rationale”.
This morning the judges had chatted during an informal meeting at the Supreme Court lounge, where judges usually spend some time before going to court. Later, Mr. Venugopal told reporters that everything “had been settled”. As per the recent situation of political crisis in our country, this issue needed to resolve very quickly and really it has been settled very quickly.
