Sources say there has been ‘no worthwhile communication’ between CJI Dipak Misra and the four senior judges — Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Joseph.
New Delhi: It’s been a month since the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court after Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra appeared before the media to complain about the functioning of the CJI. But in that time, nothing has changed at the top court.
There continues to be a complete absence of “any worthwhile communication”, with the CJI sticking to his stand that he is not in the wrong.
“There is uneasy calm. Issues raised by the four judges remain as is. The onus was on the CJI to break the ice,” disclosed a senior SC judge.
Conversations with several senior judges show that the stand-off persists since the issues raised by the four judges – Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and Madan Lokur – remain unresolved.
Roster rejig
While much was made of the CJI’s decision to rejig the roster for allocation of cases among judges and make the same public, the fact is it still remains unclear if the CJI has any criteria to allocate cases, the senior judges said. They added that they were not consulted before the roster was rejigged last month.
More interestingly, in a few cases, the new roster has actually left senior judges, including those in the collegium, with a smaller workload than before.
“I don’t think anybody was consulted. But, to be fair, the CJI is the master of the roster and doesn’t need to consult anyone,” said a senior judge.
“But, since the issue had attracted such a huge controversy, I feel he could have at least taken into confidence the four senior judges and then taken a decision. There is, I feel, a complete breakdown of communication between the CJI and the brother-judges.”
No meeting of the collegium
It is also learnt that at least three “informal” meetings were held in the aftermath of the 12 January press conference by the four judges, in which some other senior judges also participated. Misra didn’t extend any olive branch to his brother-judges or reach out to them to understand their grouse.
Inquiries made by ThePrint revealed that the CJI hasn’t called a meeting of the collegium since 10 January, the last time it met to clear names for the Supreme Court and chief justices of some high courts.
Of the two names recommended for appointment as SC judges, the Narendra Modi government has indicated its unhappiness with one – Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K.M. Joseph, who headed the bench that set aside the order of the Centre placing Uttarakhand under President’s Rule for highly questionable reasons. In doing so, the bench had come down heavily on the manner in which President’s Rule was imposed.
“While I don’t think the government will take the risk of returning Chief Justice Joseph’s name, if that does happen, the response of the CJI would be interesting to see,” said another judge.
“Any strong CJI, who believes in the independence of the judiciary, would immediately call a meeting of the collegium and reiterate the name if there is no cogent reason in the government’s decision. But, let’s see.”