Bar Council Asks Political Parties to Stay Out of SC Rift, Forms 7-Member Delegation for Mediation

New Delhi: The Bar Council of India on Saturday passed a resolution asking political parties not to take advantage of the unprecedented situation that has arisen in the Supreme Court following the press conference of four senior judges.

Stressing that it was internal matter of the apex court, BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said that they have decided to apprise judges of sentiment of bar and resolve the matter "peacefully and quickly".

“We've given an opportunity to Rahul Gandhi & political parties to talk about our judiciary, it’s unfortunate. On behalf of Bar Council of India, I request him & other political parties to not politicise the matter,” Mishra said.

Taking about the press conference called the four senior judges of the court, he said, “The judges should not have gone to public with the issue. There are enough mechanisms in address this in house. We discussed the contents of the letter and have decided to form a seven-member delegation that will meet all judges, that is all judges except CJI and the four judges who wrote the letter.”

The BCI has already sought appointments from 50 percent of the judges in the apex court, he added.

Praising the Union Government for not getting involved in the issue, Mishra said, "We appreciate that the government is not involving itself in the internal matters of the SC. Prime Minister and Law Minister have already said that government will not interfere in this matter. The Bar welcomes this decision."

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) also passed a resolution saying the differences of four seniormost judges with Chief Justice Dipak Misra should be considered by the full bench of the SC.

In a radical request, the SCBA urged the apex court that all the cases listed before the Supreme Court for Monday should be transferred to the courts of the top 5 judges, i.e., the CJI and the four dissenting judges.

The four senior most judges of the Supreme Court, Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice M B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph, had on Friday called a press conference in New Delhi and said the situation in the top court was "not in order" and many "less than desirable" things have taken place.

Unless this institution is preserved, "democracy will not survive in this country," they had said.

Justice Chelameswar, the second senior judge after the Chief Justice of India, had said "sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months".

Chelameswar said they had met CJI Dipak Misra on Friday morning and "raised issues affecting the institution".

He also said that the four judges had written a letter to CJI Dipak Misra some time back, raising important issues.