Sources say issues raised by the four Supreme Court judges cannot be ‘settled’. Meanwhile, Prashant Bhushan’s CJAR moves court asking for in-house probe.
New Delhi: With no sign of a breakthrough in the unprecedented crisis in the Supreme Court even four days after it erupted, pressure is mounting on the office of the Chief Justice of India to act.
ThePrint has learnt that the judges met again for tea Tuesday, as they did Monday, but there was no indication of whether they discussed any issues raised by the four judges at their press conference Friday.
Highly-placed sources said while the issues raised cannot be “settled”, the four judges are open to any discussion to resolve the crisis triggered by their questioning of the conduct of the CJI.
“It is the CJI who has to make the first move. So far, there is no such offer,” the source said.
Fresh trouble
While the logjam continued in the apex court, a fresh complaint was filed Tuesday by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms, a non-profit led by advocate Prashant Bhushan, seeking an in-house probe against CJI Dipak Misra.
Bhushan wrote to five judges, next only to the CJI in seniority, to constitute a committee and initiate a probe against him. “The inquiry must be swiftly done so that the reputation of the judiciary is not damaged further and the integrity and independence of the judiciary remains intact,” Bhushan wrote.
The in-house procedure does not deal with complaints against the CJI specifically, as he is the authority to deal with all complaints. For junior judges, the CJI has to bring the complaint to the notice of the President of India, as per the 1991 Justice Veeraswami case.
Reactions to the complaint
None of the judges has responded to the complaint so far.
However, the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) have come out strongly against the request for an in-house probe.
BCI chairperson Manan Mishra said this was Bhushan’s attempt to bring down the judiciary. “This request shouldn’t even be taken seriously since nothing will come out of this. This is just a cheap publicity stunt.”
SCBA President Vikas Singh questioned Bhushan’s locus to make such a request. “It is for Justice Chelameswar to take notice, since he is next in line to the CJI. Prashant Bhushan has no role to play,” he said.
CJAR had moved the court in November last year seeking an independent judicial probe on the same issue, but it was rejected by the court. The court had also imposed costs of Rs 25 lakh on the non-profit, which it is crowd sourcing. CJAR had also sought a review of the ruling and the case is pending before the apex court.