Justice J Chelameswar refuses to comment on SC crisis

Justice J Chelameswar, one of the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court who had hurled accusations at Chief Justice Dipak Misra at a recent unprecedented press conference, on Monday refused to comment on the judicial crisis looming for over a week.

"No comments," was his reply with folded hands to the scribes when they sought to know whether the on-going crisis has been resolved or not, at the sidelines of a book release function here.

Chelameswar, who was away from the national capital since Friday and resumed holding of the court from today, did not accept any questions from scribes on the progress of resolving the deadlock.

Justices Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph had held an unprecendented press conference on January 12 and raised a litany of issues pertaining to the administration of the top court, including the allotment of sensitive cases.

Justice Lokur was also present at the book release function but did not address the gathering. After the function, he quietly left the venue as the mediapersons gathered around Justice Chelameswar.

The book release function was also attended by politicians like Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh and advocate Prashant Bhushan.

Bhushan, who is the founder of political outfit Swaraj Party, has openly supported the stand of Justices Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Joseph after their January 12 presser in which they levelled allegations against the CJI over allocation of sensitive PILs.

Today, some development was expected at the Supreme Court on the crisis, as on Sunday, reliable sources had said that the CJI was likely to take some decision after meeting the four judges on making public the system which is likely to be adopted by the apex court on allocation of sensitive PILs to the judges.

In the speech after the release of the book titled 'Supreme Court Of India, The Beginning', Justice Chelameswar said that for the survival of a liberal democracy, an impartial judiciary is essential.

While stressing the need for a study of the Supreme Court as an institution, he said that the decisions made by the apex court touched the lives of the entire population.

"For the survival of a liberal democracy, an impartial and independent judiciary is essential, without which liberal democracy will not flourish," Justice Chelameswar said.

He also said the apex court was not a superintending court of the entire judiciary as per the Constitution, but in practice, it exercised a great deal of such powers.

"The Supreme Court of India is not a superintending court of the entire judiciary of the country. At least the text of the Constitution does not provide for such a superintending power.

"But as a practice, Supreme Court exercise a great deal of superintending powers. Directly the matter of appointments and transfer of judges of high courts, indirectly laying down the law regarding various aspects of administration of justice at high courts and subordinate courts," he said.

He further said there was a need for a solution to clear the backlog of cases in the higher judiciary, adding that the problem was real.

"The enormous jurisdiction which the Supreme Court is conferred by the Constitution, coupled with the eagerness of the court to do complete justice created a huge amount of arrears on this court. The backlog appears to be huge, impossible to be cleared.

"A solution must be found if the institution is to remain relevant. The problem is real. Ways and means for solving the problem must be devised," Justice Chelameswar said.

The book, penned by George H Gadbois, JR is edited and introduced by Vikram Raghavan and Vasujith Ram.