Opining that the “unprecedented” action by four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court to speak openly against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Advocates’ Association of Western India (AAWI) on Friday said that the move had dented the image of the judiciary in the country and it would have a bearing on high courts and lower courts.
In a statement issued here in the evening, AAWI president and senior lawyer Rajiv Chavan said: : “As President of oldest Bar in India, I believe today's extraordinary situation in SC was most unfortunate and sad”.
“People trust judiciary. Today, a serious dent has been caused to the image of judiciary by the unprecedented action of four senior-most judges of the highest court of India. This will have impact on High Courts and lower courts,” Chavan said.
Earlier in the day, four senior-most judges of Supreme Court --- Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph –addressed a news conference in the capital and launched a virtual revolt against the current Chief Justice of India, by releasing a detailed letter that they had jointly written to chief Justice Misra and saying that there was an immediate need to preserve the judiciary system in the country if democracy was to be protected.
“This is an extraordinary event in the history of the institution…. The administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. Many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months. Time and again, we as senior judges thought we had a responsibility to the institution and the nation and we tried to collectively persuade the chief justice that certain things are not in order therefore you should remedial measures,” Justice Chelameswar told the media.
“Unfortunately we failed to convince the chief justice that unless this institution is preserved and it maintains its equanimity, democracy in this country will not survive in this or any country….. We met CJI with a specific request which unfortunately couldn’t convince him that we were right therefore, we were left with no choice except to communicate it to the nation that please take care of the institution,” Justice Chelameswar said.