Attempts underway to resolve issues. We want larger problems addressed: Justice Jasti Chelameswar
, ET Bureau|
Jan 18, 2018, 07.37 AM IST
NEW DELHI : Justice Jasti Chelameswar, the second seniormost Supreme Court Judge, has said he wants the judiciary to be strong and serve the nation. Chelameswar and three other senior SC judges had last week gone public on their differences with Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra over his selection of benches to hear high-profile cases.
"Attempts are underway to resolve the issues," the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court told ET on Wednesday. "There are larger problems. We want them to be addressed. That is why we went to the press breaking all conventions."
Justice Chelameswar said the problem cannot be allowed to linger on for far too long. "It has to be resolved soon," he said. "We are not concerned with individual cases."
The issue of assigning of petitions seeking a probe into the death of special CBI judge BH Loya to a bench led by the 10th senior-most member of the top court had come up in the press conference held by the four senior judges on Friday. Justice Arun Mishra, who headed the bench, has since recused himself from the case. It will now come up before another bench on Friday.
High-level sources in the Supreme Court, meanwhile, said hectic efforts were underway to resolve the issues raised in the press conference. "The Chief Justice of India has reached out to his brother judges on a goodwill-building exercise," one of them said. "The issue is, however, far from being resolved," the person told ET.
"There have been preliminary talks on the issues raised at the press conference, but not much headway has since been made in it. There are many larger issues which have to be sorted out," the person said.
The source said the ef forts were stalled due to Justice Chelameswar's illness, which forced him to stay away from court work on Wednesday. Justice Chelameswar has been suffering from sinus problems aggravated by air pollution in Delhi. The rest of the judges met over the traditional Wednesday lunch — a tradition which has been observed for years to create bonhomie between judges and also create awareness of each other's state cuisine. All the top court judges also meet every day in the morning before court hours over a cup of tea, court staff say. This is adhered to by most CJIs to ensure punctuality among brother judges.
The key issues raised by the four judges — Justices Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and Madan B Lokur — included assignment of cases to specific benches, lack of a mechanism to deal with complaints against the CJI, and also the vexed issue of the memorandum of procedure which is yet to be finalised.
The Commit tee of Judicial Accountability and Reforms had on Tuesday sent a complaint against the CJI to the four judges who had complained of procedural irregularities. Sources said a mechanism which will determine the way forward on such complaints in the future was one of the sore points.
The four judges had in a letter to the CJI demanded that all such contentious cases, including politically-sensitive cases, be handled by Constitution benches of seniormost judges. They had also urged the CJI to assign all important cases in the order of seniority.
As per the rules of the Supreme Court, and a recent top court judgement passed by CJI Misra, the CJI is the master of the court roster. He can assign any case to any judge. Any other judge could recuse himself from a case citing conflict of interest, but cannot post any case before himself.
The four judges had sought a mechanism to ensure that successive CJIs do not deal with any case levelling allegations against themselves as it would involve conflict of interest.
"Attempts are underway to resolve the issues," the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court told ET on Wednesday. "There are larger problems. We want them to be addressed. That is why we went to the press breaking all conventions."
Justice Chelameswar said the problem cannot be allowed to linger on for far too long. "It has to be resolved soon," he said. "We are not concerned with individual cases."
The issue of assigning of petitions seeking a probe into the death of special CBI judge BH Loya to a bench led by the 10th senior-most member of the top court had come up in the press conference held by the four senior judges on Friday. Justice Arun Mishra, who headed the bench, has since recused himself from the case. It will now come up before another bench on Friday.
High-level sources in the Supreme Court, meanwhile, said hectic efforts were underway to resolve the issues raised in the press conference. "The Chief Justice of India has reached out to his brother judges on a goodwill-building exercise," one of them said. "The issue is, however, far from being resolved," the person told ET.
"There have been preliminary talks on the issues raised at the press conference, but not much headway has since been made in it. There are many larger issues which have to be sorted out," the person said.
The source said the ef forts were stalled due to Justice Chelameswar's illness, which forced him to stay away from court work on Wednesday. Justice Chelameswar has been suffering from sinus problems aggravated by air pollution in Delhi. The rest of the judges met over the traditional Wednesday lunch — a tradition which has been observed for years to create bonhomie between judges and also create awareness of each other's state cuisine. All the top court judges also meet every day in the morning before court hours over a cup of tea, court staff say. This is adhered to by most CJIs to ensure punctuality among brother judges.
The key issues raised by the four judges — Justices Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and Madan B Lokur — included assignment of cases to specific benches, lack of a mechanism to deal with complaints against the CJI, and also the vexed issue of the memorandum of procedure which is yet to be finalised.
The Commit tee of Judicial Accountability and Reforms had on Tuesday sent a complaint against the CJI to the four judges who had complained of procedural irregularities. Sources said a mechanism which will determine the way forward on such complaints in the future was one of the sore points.
The four judges had in a letter to the CJI demanded that all such contentious cases, including politically-sensitive cases, be handled by Constitution benches of seniormost judges. They had also urged the CJI to assign all important cases in the order of seniority.
As per the rules of the Supreme Court, and a recent top court judgement passed by CJI Misra, the CJI is the master of the court roster. He can assign any case to any judge. Any other judge could recuse himself from a case citing conflict of interest, but cannot post any case before himself.
The four judges had sought a mechanism to ensure that successive CJIs do not deal with any case levelling allegations against themselves as it would involve conflict of interest.
