New Delhi, Jan 19: The rift between Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and the four senior most judges has not ended even as they had their second meeting on Thursday. The CJI reportedly didn’t concede to their demand to publicly acknowledge their grievances.
Justice Chelameswar, Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph met the CJI for a brief meeting in the presence of junior judges A K Sikri, N V Ramana, U U Lalit and D Y Chandrachud. The dissenting judges demanded that the CJI make a statement to the press that he was setting up a committee of judges to make a system for transparency in the assigning of cases to benches. They, however, didn’t give the demands in writing. The CJI agreed to look into their demands but declined to go to the press to make the statement. The matter of leaking details of the talks to the media was also raised. (Also read: Who are Justice J Chelameshwar, Madan Lokur, Kurian Joseph And Ranjan Gogoi)
PTI reported that some progress was made today as Justice Misra said he was aware of the grievances. However, sources said that crisis has not yet been resolved. Junior judges are holding discussions with both the sides. Sources said that Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao have also visited Justice Chelameswar’s official residence more than once since the January 12 news conference. The talks could not be continued as Justice Chamleshwar left for Chennai for the weekends for a pre-scheduled visit. The talks to end the stalemate will commence from Monday.
Justices Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph held a press conference last week at their residence and raised questions on the CJI assigning sensitive cases to select benches. After the furore, the two sides met earlier this week to resolve the issue.