4 SC judges landed a mini-revolt on Friday.
Four senior judges of the Supreme Court today mounted a virtual revolt against the chief justice, listing a litany of problems that they said are afflicting the country's highest court and warned they could destroy Indian democracy.
The unprecedented move at a joint news conference by the four judges including Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior judge after the Chief Justice of India, left the judiciary and observers stunned, leaving uncertain how this open dissension in the hallowed institution would be resolved.
Justice Chelameswar himself described as an "extraordinary event" the news conference during which he said "sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months."
They also released a letter which they had written to CJI couple of months ago.
Here are some of the top quotes from the letter:
1. It is with great anguish and concern that we have thought it proper to address this letter to you so as to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this Court which has adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice delivery system and the independence of the High Courts besides impacting the administrative functioning of the Office of the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India
2. The convention of recognising the privilege of the Chief Justice to form the roster and assign cases to different members/benches of the court is a convention designed for a disciplined and efficient transaction of business of the court but not a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual, of the Chief Justice over his colleagues.
3. It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the Chief Justice is only the first amongst equals — nothing more or nothing less.
4.There have been instances where case having far reaching consequences for the Nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justices of the Court selectively to the benches “of their preference” without any rationale basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs.
5. We are not mentioning details only to avoid embarrassing the institution but note that such departures have already damaged the image of this institution to some extent
6. The Hon’ble Chief Justice of India is duty bound to rectify the situation and take appropriate remedial measures after a full discussion with the other members of the Collegium and at a later state, if required, with other Hon’ble Judges of this Court.
With Agency inputs
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