New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) may be back to functioning as usual but the ripples of the judicial rift over the allocation of cases and other administrative challenges before the country’s top court continue to be felt.
In an interview to the news website Quint on Tuesday, justice J. Chelameswar, one of the four judges who led what was seen as a revolt against Chief Justice of India Dipak Mishra, said it was a problem for which a solution needed to be found.
In an unprecedented move, justices Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph alleged on 12 January that the CJI was not following established precedents in allocation of cases among the judges. Consequently, they argued, this was “adversely” affecting the justice delivery system. They highlighted their grievances in a seven-page letter of protest.
Since that day, continuous efforts are being made by members of the judiciary to heal the rift and settle the issues flagged by the four senior judges.
The CJI and other senior judges met in his chamber at his request before court proceedings began on Tuesday. Another meeting is likely on Wednesday morning.
Attorney general K.K. Venugopal told journalists that there were no differences and everything had been settled. He had earlier said that the four senior judges’ act of going public with their grievances against the CJI could have been avoided.
The chairman of the Bar Council of India (BCI) Manan Mishra also said the matter had been laid to rest and the court was back to functioning as before.
On 13 January, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) passed two resolutions, one holding that a full court reference comprising all judges of SC be made to resolve the issue over allocation of cases and another where all cases of public interest litigation are heard by either the CJI or the four senior SC judges. Also, the BCI has set up a seven-member panel to hold meetings with the CJI and other judges to resolve the issue.