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On Friday, four senior judges of SC called a press conference and announced that administration of the SC is not in order. Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior judge after CJI Justice Dipak Mishra accompanied by Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M.B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph areleased a letter detailing their concern and asked the nation to preserve the institution of Judiciary. Unless judiciary is preserved, Democracy will not survive. According to them, they met CJI and raised issue affecting the institution of judiciary but was left with no option but go public about what is going on within collegium.
According to these Judges, they have stood against CJI Deepak Mishra’s allegedly arbitrary way of assigning important cases to benched headed by junior Judges and not to Senior Judges of the SC. The press conference has been called at Justice Chelameswar’s Bangalow on Tughlaq Road, much near to residence of CJI. However, they claim that it is not a political meeting and they are expressing concerns over far reaching consequences for the nation because such selective preference while assigning cases.
This sudden action by Judiciary has left the Government stunned. Minister of State for Law P. P. Chaudhury said that Judiciary will sort out the matter by itself. CPI leader D. Raja went to meet Justice Chelameswar but later, CPI dissociated itself from that meeting. Shiv Sena opined that four pillars of democracy should stand independently otherwise it will collapse. However, it also said that reason behind this action should be looked upon. Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said that point raised by the judges is important and their allegations are serious and disturbing.
The rebellion by judges are appreciated by some whereas many criticized it for damaging the institution of Judiciary. Ex- CJI R m Lodha said that the adopted manner could have been avoided and sorted out with discussions. Same view was also expressed by the Attorney General K K Venugopal. Justice Lodha said that though he went strictly by seniority as a matter of policy to avoid allegations of arbitrariness , these prctices are based on convention and no judge is senior or junior. All judges are equal. About the situation, he said that there must be free, fair and frank discussions, at the highest level. It must be done at the earliest so that the damage to the institution is repaired.
Supreme Court lawyer Karuna Nundy stressing upon the the importance of dissent, said that top judges have the constitutional spine and the integrity to stand up.
Justice RMS Khandeparkar, Goa Bench of Bombay HC said that they could have gone to the President of India and sought his intervention. After this incident, some senior judges or counsels must intervene and Government should disassociate itself.
It cannot be denied that this sudden incident has stunned the judicial fraternity as well as the government. The faith of people in judiciary is at stake. Some logical steps need to be taken by judiciary to repair the damage.
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