Stormy scenes in Supreme Court over college bribe case: ‘Internal matters should be sorted out in collegium’

M Veerappa Moily said “internal matters” of the Supreme Court should be sorted out in the collegium (File Photo)

A day after a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra struck down an order passed by the second senior-most judge Justice J Chelameshwar, two former law ministers on Saturday spoke out on the matter. M Veerappa Moily said “internal matters” of the Supreme Court should be sorted out in the collegium and “should not come to open in this way”. Ashwani Kumar, another former law minister, said “the recent events in the Supreme Court strike at the core of institutional integrity”.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Singhvi said “clashes and rivalry” between the Chief Justice of India and the second seniormost judge are not unprecedented. He referred to tussles between Justice Y V Chandrachud and his successor Justice P N Bhagwati in the late 1970s and early 1980s and then between Justice A M Ahmadi and Justice Kuldip Singh in the 1990s.

Read | College bribe case: Three-judge bench of SC to hear Kamini Jaiswal petition tomorrow

Dramatic scenes were witnessed in the Supreme Court on Friday when the bench headed by CJI Misra annulled the order passed by the two-judge bench headed by Justice Chelameshwar saying the CJI alone, as the master of the roster, had the power to allocate work to judges in the apex court. The two-judge bench had sought to constitute a five-judge bench to hear a matter of alleged judicial corruption.

Moily said: “An internal matter of the Supreme Court, more appropriately has to sorted out within their own collegium. Because already there is a collegium… It is a matter which has to be sorted out. It should not come to open in this way. It may not be good for the better interest of the governance of the Supreme Court. It should not surface. And moreover it should not come to the bench level. It has to be sorted out in the collegium itself,” Moily said.

“It is absolutely imperative for both the Bar and the bench to preserve the sanctity of an institution that has served the nation well. While no one is above accountability or the law, it is necessary at the same time to save institutions and persons in authority from irresponsible or reckless insinuations or allegations,” Kumar said.

In a series of tweets, Singhvi said that though he was not inside Court Two on Wednesday and Court One on Friday, the unanimous view is that this incident has covered Supreme Court in infamy. “Most momentous issues dressed up as principle are, at the base, actuated by personal ambition, petty rivalry, craving for publicity and inflated egos. All this applies to sordid episodes in SC,” he said.

“No one has emerged better or brighter. All besmirched. Recovery of SC from this self inflicted wound may be impossible and near fatal without statesmanship, wisdom, sagacity, restraint, submissiveness, cooperation and unbiased objectivity — all conspicuous by absence and seemingly impossible to find,” he said. Singhvi then referred to past tussles between CJIs and other judges.

“Stop being starry eyed romantic,” he wrote. “Clashes and rivalry between CJI and seniormost puisne are at least 30 yrs old -YV Chandrachud/Bhagwati; Ahmadi/Kuldip; many more. But degree egregious this time and erodes institutional integrity of SC as institution,” he tweeted.