Justice Chelameswar expresses anguish, refuses to list PIL on allocation of cases in SC

NEW DELHI: In yet another twist to the ongoing controversy over differences among Supreme Court judges, the seniormost judge of the top court, Justice J Chelameswar today refused to hear former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan's plea against the Chief Justice of India on allocation of cases.

As the Chief Justice has been made party in the petition, the bench headed by him could not hear the case, advocate Prashant Bhushan said and pleaded the seniormost judge Justice J Chelameswar to intervene and examine the issue as the case was not being listed by SC registry.

Justice Chelameswar, however, refused to hear Bhushan's plea saying that he was being targeted for raising questions on the functioning of the top court administration headed by CJI.

Justice Chelameswar asserted that a relentless campaign has been going on against him since the last two months, after he held press conference along with three other senior judges of the apex court.

"I don't want to hear the case. Sorry, I cannot take up the case, otherwise there would be one more reversal of order in the next 24-hours," a visibily upset Justice Chelameswar said, referring to his earlier order on medical scam which was quashed by a bench headed by CJI.

"Reasons for not taking up the case are too obvious. There is a relentless campaign going on against me since last two months.. there are people who think that I somehow want to grab the power... you please understand my difficulty" he told advocate Bhushan.

Bhushan contended that the petition was filed 10 days back but SC registry was not listing the case for hearing. In his plea, Bhushan said "listing of the case should be decided by registry after consulting the other top three judges".

Bhushan approached the CJI, saying Justice Chelameswar refused to hear the case and that the grievances raised in the petition should be addressed by the court.

Chief Justice Dipak Misra said he will look into the matter.