‘STORY OVER’ BUT NO ONE KNOWS THE END

The Supreme Court crisis, created on Friday by four seniormost judges' revolt against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, blew over on Monday after an informal full court meeting of all judges over a cup of coffee.

The government heaved a sigh of relief as it need not intervene in the matter; its stand, too, had been that the judiciary is capable of resolving the matter itself.

The four judges on Monday went to their respective courts to hear the cases listed before their Benches in the cause-list, leading the lawyers to believe the matters had been sorted out. None is, however, sure about what transpired in the informal meeting, and only the CJI can clear the air in a statement.

The fact that a majority of the 24 judges are with the CJI may have weighed with the dissenting judges in not pushing the issues any further. Their charge that the CJI was allotting sensitive cases to the junior judges fell flat after someone dug out 15 such cases since 1998, which were also assigned to juniors by Misra’s predecessors.

Advocate RP Luthra raked up the issue in the CJI's court, claiming there was a conspiracy to destroy the Supreme Court as an independent institution. He wanted CJI Misra to initiate action against the four rebel judges, but the latter dismissed him with a smile, without giving any response.

TEA-CUP STORM: Attorney-General K K Venugopal told reporters that "there was an informal meeting in the morning, everything has been settled, and the courts are functioning." He insisted that "it was a storm in a tea cup."

The four dissenting judges – Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- took up their respective business on the first working day after the January 12 press conference. "Kahani khatam ho gayi (The story is over," said Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Mishra at a press conference here. He said the BCI members had met 15 judges since Sunday and all had opined that the issues had been resolved. Should they not face action for criticising the CJI? To this, BCI chief quipped: "No need. They are all honest and men of integrity. It was an internal issue and has been resolved."