By Kriti Rathi
On Friday, justices Jasti?Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, the four most senior judges in the country after Misra, had?openly protested?the bypassing of established traditions in the court by the Chief Justice in assigning cases to benches, via a letter that the four judges had written to Justice Misra, which became public on Friday, mentioning his role as the master of the roster.
The major cases which showed his biases in assigning cases are Special CBI Judge BH Loya’s death the RP Luthra vs. Union of India Ministry of Law And Another. Loya’s death case was sent to court No.10 headed by Justice Arun Mishra, bypassing eight senior judges and benches.
On hearing Luthra’s case, on 27 October, 2017, the bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Uday Umesh Lalit had issued a notice to the Centre and directed the presence of Attorney-General KK Venugopal, in which although they rejected Luthra’s challenge seeking cancellation of the appointment of judges without the Memorandum of Procedure, the two justices found merit in the arguments stating that “there should be no further delay in finalization of MOP in larger public interest.”
According to the letter, it seems clear that the main point of contention at present is the delay in implementing the Memorandum of Procedure towards the appointment of judges in India. The four justices criticized the method of execution stating, “Any issue with regard to the Memorandum of Procedure should be discussed in the Chief Justices’ Conference and by the full court. Such a matter of critical importance, if at all required to be taken on the judicial side, should be dealt with by none other than a Constitution Bench.”
In the case of the death of a judicial officer being sent to a “handpicked” bench, they questioned whether it wouldn’t reflect badly on the system as well as the competence of the other senior judges, to which he had replied that the case has already been assigned by him to court No.10 in administrative authority and that he saw nothing wrong in his order.
Even after the four judges protested to the CJI, saying all this would set a wrong example and that the institution will endure. He , however, retorted that he was acting as per the customary principles of the allocation of cases.
The four judges also recalled that they had been making requests to the CJI for months now to make the allotment of cases more suitable and proper, apart from making the system more crystal clear but to no avail.
This was the last straw, and even the Justice Gogoi, who is the next in line to become the Chief Justice of India after Justice Misra demits office on October 3 and had been hesitant so far to address the media, as per the sources, decided to join the ranks
The Supreme Court Bar Association on Saturday said that those allegations were not substantial, and the press conference was ?ill-planned?. According to their President Vikas Singh, ?If they had to come for a press conference, then they should have said something substantial. Just creating doubts in the minds of people will not serve the interest of the judiciary.?
Singh further added that now, people will ?wildly deduce? about what is happening inside the top judicial body, and ?all kinds of things will be said about the Supreme Court?. Because of which The Supreme Court Bar Association will now have to be upbeat and make sure that this suspicion instilled in the common people is dealt with. The matter was unnecessary, and because of the drama, ?people are very doubtful about the neutrality of the Supreme Court.?
Seeing all this unfolded, The Congress?urged?for a full court to investigate the allegations made against Misra amid?rumors?that the party was considering moving accusation procedures against the CJI. The Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile,?accused?the Congress of politicizing the matter.
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