Four SC judges air differences with CJI Misra 

Four SC judges air differences with CJI Misra 

Context

Press conference organised by 4 senior judges of Supreme Court on difference over CJI

What has happened?

Four senior judges of the Supreme Court held a press conference and publicly accused Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra of selectively assigning cases to judges of his choice without any rational basis

Why this press conference is significant?

This conference assumes importance because judicial protocol dictates that sitting judges should not interact with the media

Reasons for the conference as given by the judges

Four judges said that they had collectively tried to persuade the Chief Justice to take remedial measures but their efforts failed

• The judges said that with the independence of the judiciary and the future of democracy at stake, they had “no other choice but communicate to the nation to please take care of this institution.”
• The administration of the Supreme Court is not in order. Many things undesirable have happened in the last few months. As senior-most judges of the court and of this country, we hold a responsibility to the institution and to the nation
• Several other important cases like this had been assigned to preferred Benches over the past months. The convention of the court demands that important cases of public interest or sensitive matters should be first heard by the CJI. If the CJI is not willing for some reason to hear the case, it should be assigned to the next senior-most judge in the Supreme Court. Instead of that, such cases have been assigned to certain Benches and eventually given a quiet burial.

Trigger for the conference

Justice Chelameswar recounted that the trigger for the press conference was a meeting they held with the Chief Justice on Friday morning regarding the assignment of a petition, seeking an independent probe into the mysterious death of CBI judge B.H. Loya, to a particular Bench. (Loya was the CBI judge hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheik encounter case)

Accusation on CJI

Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph — the senior-most judges after the CJI — accused Justice Misra of assigning cases of “far-reaching consequences to the nation” to junior hand-picked judges against the time-tested convention, practice and tradition of the court