'Rebel' Judges Met Chief Justice For 30 Minutes Today, 4 More Judges Present

New Delhi:  Four Supreme Court judges who took on Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra met him in his chambers, for the second time this week, to resolve an unprecedented crisis after the quartet went public with their criticism of the country's top judge.

Four more judges were present in today's meeting, which lasted around 30 minutes.

Apart from Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurien Joseph - who criticized Chief Justice Misra in a never - before press conference last Friday - the others present at the meeting were Justices AK Sikri, NV Ramana, DY Chandrachud and UU Lalit.

The dissenting judges have reportedly stressed on a plan to address their concerns about the "administration of the Supreme Court", mainly the way important cases are assigned.

The four went to the media the day a sensitive case involving the death of Judge BH Loya, who died of a heart attack while hearing a case of murder against BJP president Amit Shah, was assigned to Justice Arun Mishra, who is number 10 in the Supreme Court pecking order. The two-judge bench didn't include any of the four judges, who are the most senior after the Chief Justice.

"Without an independent judiciary, democracy is under threat," the judges said to the media.

Earlier this week, the rebel judges were also kept out of a five-judge constitution bench assigned eight major cases including a legal challenge to Aadhaar, a review of the ban on gay sex and a challenge to restrictions on women entering the Sabarimala temple.

On Tuesday, the Chief Justice reached out to the four and held discussions, after which sources reported that "the ice has started melting".

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Petitions asking for an independent investigation into Judge Loya's death could be reassigned after Justice Arun Mishra said in an order that the case be "put up before the appropriate Bench". That leaves the Chief Justice to decide whether to assign the case to a different set of judges.

Justice Mishra had become emotional at a meeting with other judges on Monday, and said he was "unfairly" targeted and questions were being raised about his "competence".