There was an uneasy truce in the country’s top court yesterday as Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra reached out to four dissenting judges to resolve a rift with them over the allocation of cases in the Supreme Court.
Justice Misra met the four judges – Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph – separately in the course of the customary tea gathering at the judges lounge yesterday morning, sources said.
The nearly 15-minute conversation between the Chief Justice and his four senior colleagues would be followed by a similar meeting today morning as the talks remained inconclusive, the sources said.
During the meeting, the sources said, Justice Misra and the rebel judges discussed all the outstanding issues, point of contentions and differences.
The sources said the Chief Justice took the initiative of meeting the four judges as they were not satisfied with the outcome of a meeting of all judges on Monday morning.
An impression was generated on Monday that the issues were resolved after Attorney General K K Venugopal said the events since January 12 were a “storm in a tea cup” and that “everything is settled”.
The country’s top court was hit by an unprecedented crisis, after the four most senior judges at a press conference last Friday expressed their unhappiness about the functioning of the court and how cases were being allocated arbitrarily.
They complained that the “administration of Supreme Court is not in order and there have been things less than desirable that have happened in the court”.
The judges also released a letter they had written to the Chief Justice questioning how he was arbitrarily deciding which bench should decide which case even though he is the “master of the roster” but that did not make him a “superior authority”.
“The Chief Justice is only the first amongst equals – nothing more or nothing less,” the letter said.
Efforts by sitting judges and advocate bodies to mediate a solution to the crisis have not succeeded.
The Bar Council of India even set up a seven-member delegation and met Justice Misra and 14 other judges on Sunday. The Supreme Court Bar Association also met the Chief Justice and other judges.
In the stunning ‘rebellion’ against the Chief Justice, the case of Mumbai judge B H Loya may have been the tipping point, according to sources.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court asked the Maharashtra government to share all the documents relating to Loya’s death with the petitioners seeking an independent probe.
“This is a matter they must get everything. There should not be any confidentiality,” said the bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Mohan M Shantanagoudar asking senior lawyer Harish Salve to share the documents with the petitioners.
Social activists T Poonawala and Mumbai journalist Bandhuraj Sambhaji Lone moved the top court seeking an independent probe into the death of Loya.
As Salve, appearing for Maharashtra government, told the court to have a look at the documents that were in a sealed cover, Justice Mishra said: “Exchange the copy with them (petitioners). And we adjourn the matter for seven days.”
Salve said he had himself not seen the documents sent by Maharashtra government, but the bench told him to go through the documents and if he finds some are sensitive, then he can hold them back.
Justice Mishra said: “Unless there is something, there should not be any confidentiality. Normally there should not be any objection in sharing the documents.”
Salve said that he has a spare copy which he can share with senior counsel Pallav Sisodia – appearing for the petitioner – but he should keep it to himself.
In the months leading up to his sudden death three years ago, the judge was hearing the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in which Bharatiya Janata party chief Amit Shah was the prime accused.
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