SC judges against CJI | Centre scrambles to douse court fire

Soon after the four Supreme Court judges held a press conference against CJI Dipak Misra, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad rushed to the PMO to give a briefing on the development. The government has decided to rope in Attorney General KK Venugopal to resolve the crisis in the Supreme Court. The government is apparently not keen to get into the "internal" affairs of the court. However, sources say that while the government may not directly intervene, it has also decided to rope in retired judges to broker peace.

Sources indicated that the government had some inkling about the brewing trouble, but it could not sense the scale of the divide. There is a view that such a "public spectacle" could have been avoided. There was, however, no official word from the government side, though some in the BJP spoke.

Sources said that some retired top judges had recently informed senior government functionaries about some senior judges in the Supreme Court were not happy with the CJI.

"We can't criticise them, they are men of great integrity & have sacrificed a lot of their legal career, where they could've made money as senior counsels. We must respect them. PM must ensure that the 4 judges & CJI, in fact whole SC come to one opinion & proceed further," said Subramanian Swamy in a guarded response.

Another right-wing ideologue S Gurumurthy tweeted: "I respect justice Chelameswar more than I respect the Chief Justice or other judges. But this is not the way. The judicial wisdom seems to have failed miserably. Even though I have never been satisfied with the judiciary or the CJI I feel said that the four judges did this."

Those in the government maintained that it was an "internal matter" of the country's top judiciary. A Union Minister who did not wish to be identified said that the "public spectacle" must not have happened for the larger good of the people of the country who had "utmost faith in the Supreme Court".

Government sources said that the apex court should settle the issue at the earliest as the faith of the people in the judiciary was at stake.

"This is orchestrated and it points to a particular direction. This is in preparation of the 2019 general elections. First, Dalit disturbances happen and then close on heels of it, this happens. Also, the cases that have been lined up before Justice Misra are of significance, such as the Ram Mandir issue, the hearing over which some quarters wanted shifted to after the 2019 polls," said a senior RSS functionary.