Supreme Court crisis: CJI Dipak Misra meets dissenting judges

New Delhi, Jan 18: Days after four most senior judges of the highest court in the country held an unprecedented presser to raise certain concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra met the dissenting judges for the second time on Thursday.
The meeting between the CJI and the four judges — J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph — lasted around 10-15 minutes. No other judge was present at today’s meeting. The court proceedings resumed at 10:30 am, a court source was quoted as saying by PTI.
On January 12, the four judges had held an unexpected press conference, the first of its kind in the country’s history, to voice their protest against the roster or the manner in which certain cases were assigned to various benches in the top court. The immediate trigger for the presser, it was said, was the assignment of Judge Loya’s death case.
CJI Misra had met the four judges on Tuesday but the impasse remained and he was to meet them again on Wednesday. The meeting, however, could not take place as one of the judges, Justice Chelameswar, took leave for the day.
Late on Wednesday, however, the four judges met with two other Supreme Court judges and finalised a proposal which they hope will break the current impasse, sources told The Indian Express. The proposal, meant to be handed over to the CJI Thursday, is regarding setting up a system to insulate the roster from allegations of favour.
Earlier, on Monday, the CJI had met a seven-member delegation of the Bar Council of India and Supreme Court Bar Association president Vikas Singh and had assured them that the crisis would be sorted out soon.
In another development on Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea seeking to restrain the media from publishing, discussing and politicising issues raised by four senior-most judges in the January 12 press conference.
After the January 12 presser, the Congress had sought an investigation into the death of special CBI judge BH Loya who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. PTI