Four Senior judges went public with their criticism of Justice Misra in press conference on Friday.
New Delhi: The Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, "smiled but didn't answer" at the Supreme Court this morning when the rebellion of the four senior most judges after him was raised in his courtroom. 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. Sources speculated that the feud was openly discussed, but it is not confirmed. Chief Justice Misra is yet to reach out to Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph, who took him on in an extraordinary press conference on Friday.
Here is your 10-point cheat sheet to this big story:
- Supreme Court lawyer RP Luthra, raising the controversy before the Chief Justice, said "there is a conspiracy to destroy the institution and the Chief Justice must initiate action," Justice Misra heard him out, smiled, but remained silent.
- Sources said for the four "rebel" judges, it was "business as usual" regardless of the roster of cases, which is decided by the Chief Justice. Justice Chelameswar has around 60 cases listed today.
- On Sunday, senior lawyers of the Supreme Court who met the Chief Justice said he had said he "would ensure there was congeniality in the top court at the earliest".
- Vikas Singh, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, handed over a resolution to Justice Misra, which appeared to support the four judges and said all public interest litigation should be taken up by senior judges.
- In course of a busy weekend, a team from the Bar Council of India - the regulatory body of lawyers - met with Justice Misra to try and broker peace.
- Two Supreme Court judges -- Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao - met with Justice Chelameswar but it was a scheduled meeting, asserted sources.
- On Friday, the four judges stunned the nation as they held a press conference at the house of Justice Chelameswar, who is the most senior judge in the country after Justice Misra, and declared that the administration of the Supreme Court "is not in order".
- The judges spoke out against the allocation of sensitive cases to junior judges and said without an independent judiciary, "democracy wouldn't survive".
- Stating that it was "with no pleasure" that they had gone to the media, the judges said they were making their disagreement with the Chief Justice public after private talks failed to address what they said were serious problems.
- Among the cases that they had taken up with the Chief Justice over allocation to a junior judge was that of judge BH Loya's death in 2014, months after he took over a case in which BJP president Amit Shah was an accused. Judge Loya's family had voiced suspicion that his death was not natural, but yesterday, his son Anuj Loya held a press conference to say his family had no suspicions now and the death was being "politicized."
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