Crisis will be sorted out soon, assures Chief Justice Misra

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Sunday separately met high-level delegations of top two lawyers' bodies – BCI and SCBA – and assured them that the crisis erupting after the revolt by the four seniormost judges against him would be sorted out soon and congeniality would prevail.

A seven-member Bar Council India (BCI) panel led by its chairman Manan Kumar Mishra had a 50-minute meeting with the CJI at the end of the day after hectic parleys with several apex court judges, with whom they shared the views of the apex body of the Bar regulating the lawyers.

Coming out of the official residence of the CJI at 5, Krishna Menon Marg here, the BCI chairman told reporters that the meeting with the head of the judiciary was held in a congenial atmosphere and that Justice Misra assured that everything would be sorted out soon.

"We met CJI in a congenial atmosphere, and he said everything would be sorted out soon," Mishra said.

He also said that before meeting the CJI, the panel also discussed the crisis plaguing the higher judiciary with several other judges, including three of the four seniormost judges who had on Friday held an unprecedented press conference.

The BCI chairman said the panel met Justices J Chelameswar, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, and they also assured that everything would be sorted out.

He did not mention whether the panel had any talks with Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who was not in the city.

Mishra said they would hold a press conference on Monday to apprise about the BCI'S day-long parleys with the judges of the apex court in the wake of the crisis.

Earlier, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Vikas Singh met the CJI and handed over a resolution of the apex court lawyers' body on the crisis.

The senior lawyer said that he handed over a copy of the SCBA resolution to the CJI, who assured him that he would look into it.

"I met the CJI and handed over a copy of the resolution.

He said that he would look into it and ensure there was congeniality in the Supreme Court at the earliest," Singh said after his 15-minute meeting with the CJI.

Singh expressed hope that all judges of the apex court would con- sider its resolution in which the association asked for a full court discussion to defuse the present crisis plaguing the higher judiciary.

Four retired judges – one from the Supreme Court and three from the High Court – have also written to the Chief Justice of India, asking for a "rational, fair and transparent" process of allocation of cases.

This, the letter said, could assure people that there was no "misuse of power" to "achieve a particular result in important and sensitive cases".

Hours before the hectic parleys ended with the meeting between the CJI and the BCI panel, a coordination committee of the Delhi district court bar associations termed as "unfortunate" the presser by four seniormost judges of the Supreme Court.

Several judges of the apex court also met each other over the ongoing crisis during the day.

Two top court judges – Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao – met Justice J Chelameswar, who had led the four judges in the unprecedented press conference at his official residence here, sources said.

The four apex court judges – justices Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Joseph – had raised a litany of problems, including the assigning of cases in the apex court, and said specific issues were afflicting the country's highest court.

The BCI panel also had a brief meeting with Justice Arun Mishra, who has been in focus for hearing PILS seeking a probe into the death of special CBI judge B H Loya.

The four judges had questioned the allocation of Loya's case to Justice Mishra, bypassing senior judges.

The sources said that the full court of the Supreme Court would in all possibility deliberate on Monday upon the situation arising out of the controversial presser of its four seniormost judges who virtually revolted against the CJI.

Four retired judges, including an exSupreme Court judge, on Sunday wrote an open letter to the chief justice of India, saying they agree with the issues raised by the four apex court judges over allocation of cases and the crisis needs to be resolved “within the judiciary”.

The letter by former apex court judge P B Sawant, exchief justice of Delhi High Court A P Shah, former Madras High Court judge K Chandru and ex-bombay High Court judge H Suresh was given to the media. It also went viral on social media.

Justice Shah confirmed having written an open letter along with the other retired judges and said, “We have written the open letter which the other judges named in the letter have also consented to.”

He said that the view expressed by the retired judges is “quite similar to the views of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) that till this crisis is resolved, the important matters should be listed before a five-judge Constitution bench of senior judges”.

Justice Shah said that earlier he was not sure about the consent given by the other three judges and, therefore, he initially denied having written any letter but now all of them have given consent to it.

The letter quoted the judges as having said, “The four senior puisne Judges of the Supreme Court have brought to light a serious issue regarding the manner of allocation of cases, particularly sensitive cases, to various benches of the Supreme Court. “They have expressed a grave concern that cases are not being allocated in a proper manner and are being allocated arbitrarily to particular designated benches, often headed by junior judges, in an arbitrary manner. This is having a very deleterious effect on the administration of justice and the rule of law.”

The four retired judges said that they agree with the four judges of top court that though the CJI is the master of roster and can designate benches for allocation of work but this does not mean that it can be done in an “arbitrary manner” such that, “sensitive and important cases” are sent to “hand-picked benches” of junior judges by the chief justice.

“This issue needs to be resolved and clear rules and norms must be laid down for allocation of benches and distribution of cases, which are rational, fair and transparent,” they said, adding that this must be done “immediately to restore public confidence” in the judiciary and in the Supreme Court.

The letter further said that “however till that is done, it is important that all sensitive and important cases including pending ones, be dealt with by a Constitution bench of the five seniormost judges of this Court”.

It added, “Only such measures would assure the people that the Supreme Court is functioning in a fair and transparent manner and that the power of the Chief Justice as master of roster is not being misused to achieve a particular result in important and sensitive cases. We, therefore, urge you to take immediate steps in this regard.”