The press conference called on Friday by four of the Supreme Court's most senior judges to criticise the Chief Justice of India, has earned the stiff disapproval of the Bar Council, who said it has "shaken up the system" and the matter should be resolved "peacefully and quickly".
"We just don't want the dirty linen to be washed in public... Going to the cameras will weaken our system," Manan Kumar Mishra, chairman of the Bar Council of India had told NDTV.
The council has formed a seven-member team which would initially meet the other judges of the Supreme Court. At least half of the judges have agreed to a discussion, said Mr Mishra. The team, he said, will follow it up with meetings with the four dissenting judges and finally the Chief Justice of India. The round of meetings will start from today.
On Friday, four judges of the top court had met the media at the house of Justice J Chelameswar. Things were "not in order", they said, with what they described as "the administration of the Supreme Court" and expressed concerns about the assignment of sensitive cases, which is done by the Chief Justice of India. Asked if they believed the Chief Justice should be impeached, they said, "Let the nation decide."
The Supreme Court Bar Association, a representative body of Supreme Court lawyers, also held an emergency meeting this evening, during which they adopted two resolutions, one of which was to "restore the credibility" of the Supreme Court.
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For this, "a system must be developed to ensure PIL doesn't go beyond the first five courts," said Vikas Singh, the president of the Bar Association. The Supreme Court Bar Association also wants even pending PILs to be allotted to five senior judges.Agreeing with the Bar Council that the matter should be resolved internally, the association said the Chief Justice of India "should call a full court meeting of all judges and solve this issue".
