Crisis in the higher judiciary has exploded with 4 Supreme Court judges going public with differences in the top court. Judiciary can’t ignore this storm any longer.
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I beg to disagree. If the four learned judges had genuine fears about the institutional credibility and trust of SC, they should have done one of the following two things: one, write to the President with exactly the same very points of their concerns which they thought to be the genuine ones (and if they feared that it may help executive to trespass inside their independent domain, they could have written to all the judges of the Supreme Court and asked for a full SC meeting). Two, submit their resignations with all those points of concerns mentioned therein. But alas, they indulged in a turf war. They also have resorted to a communist method where ‘means’ justifies the ‘end’. Is that not against the basic judicial principle of ‘due process’ which these honorable judges are required to defend and enforce in every judgement ?
The one damage this episode has done to my trust in judiciary is this: I thought that all judges are equal and non-partisan. I believed that any case going to any judge – of course with the domain background, we will get the justice: like the proverbial ‘tandul nyay’ (Tandul=rice, Nyay=justice) which means that while boiling rice, you take out one grain of rice to test if the rice has boiled enough or not. But the four judges have said that it is not so. And they have contradicted themselves there: on one hand they say that the CJI is just ‘first among the equals, nothing less and nothing more’ but at the same time they imply that senior judges – which they are, have better wisdom than the junior judges ! So, is the CJI equal to them four but they four are unequally senior to the remaining SC judges ?
good article ..but can u answer in just yes or no, do u approve the decision of the judges to go public ? given the fact that they are also bounded by certain rules and regulations.. dont you think they should have resigned and than hold the press..waiting for answer ! M_Khosla
Modi ,Amithsha &BJP smashing the truths they will be procicuted by all Indians in 2019 elections .Please people don’t elect modi & company in future elections
This is a good article and appears to be unbiased. The crisis has arised on the manner by which allocation is being done. The allocation has to be purely based on the work load, expertise and such aspects. Allocation issue at best should be an irritant to the other judges. Afterall the 25+ supreme court judges are supposed to be above suspision. If there is any reason to doubt any of them to the extent that democracy is threatened then the Coligium to which the 4 esteemed judged are part off has totally failed.
I applaud ThePrint for carrying Mr. Madhav Khosla’s balanced perspective on the dissenting judges issue.
Almost all other commentaries on this topic in ThePrint and other media outlets were unabashedly pro-establishment lamentations which underestimated the rot in the higher judiciary.
For the last couple of years, Supreme Court Chief Justices have been dragging their feet on politically sensitive cases like the note ban and Aadhaar thus ensuring they result in either becoming inconsequential or fait accompli.
Chief Justices with spine who can challenge the establishment’s status quo-ist tendencies are the need of the hour.
NOW, THE GAVEL SAYS ‘DISORDER…DISORDER’
The hurriedly convened press meet by senior most judges of the highest court of India only proves to show their ire against the CJI not only for his partisan attitude, but for denigrating them by allocating sensitive cases to junior bench. Seems like there is no love lost between the four senior judges and the CJI for quite sometime.
CJI’s denial to pay heed to their plea resulted in senior judges taking the media route to make it public. This doesn’t augur well for our country as it would become a bad precedent. Moreover, people will lose faith in the functioning of judiciary. The simmering differences between the senior judges and CJI could have been sorted out within the four walls.
Professor Upendra Baxi in his book refers Justice V R Krishna Iyer for making Supreme Court of India as Supreme Court for Indians preserving the image and decorum of the highest court of India in high esteem.
Digging deep into this, one could infer that except Justice Gogoi, the other three, who are due to retire during this year, weren’t concerned about the repercussions of this extraordinary meet as they have nothing to lose. Justice Gogoi is in the line for CJI post when the Justice Deepak Misra retires in October this year.
These judges are giving ‘threat to democracy. they don’t want that judiciary should florish in India. One of the judge is son Congress CM of Assam. Therefore, background speaks enough.
Mr. every body known that,of background. we should focus only issue.you don’t worry about that, now came to knowledge of in judiciary system.
First of all, this is not a ‘Revolt’. Few (some four) self-centered person are trying to de-rail the SC. They are just self-centered person who have virtual no say in India. This is just a ‘attempt to control’ the judiciary. Author is trying to create a issue for ‘nothing’.
Poor and middle class people not able to get justice from your court due to decades of delays.
This is the failure in he system.
You people have summer vocation like schools.
Effective utilization of your time needs to be reviewed by President.
Political influence started from the beginning it is not new.
Address corrupt people in your departments.
Next to GOD people believe judiciary.
Police are not filing FIRs and Advocates are not closing their cases.
All the burden is put on public.
FOURSOME AWESOME
No doubt apex court judges coming out in open to vent out their spleen at the CJI is something unheard of in the annals of judiciary. However, the amount of agony faced by the senior most judges in the highest court of the country perhaps compelled them to open up the can of worms in public.
Much perturbing that even jurisprudence is polluted and corrupted with favouritism. Pushing aside seniors by CJI is yet another form of ‘discrimination’. Like the proverbial ‘robbing peter to pay paul’, the CJI transferred the medical admission scam case from Justice Chelameswar to another bench comprising younger judges. Irked by the disrespect shown towards him, Justice Chelameswar and three others had written a detailed letter to CJI which failed to evoke any response. Finally, they had no other option but to make it public the undesirable things happenings in the apex court.
Though it is unacceptable for learned senior most sitting judges to pour out their woes before the media, the gravity of the situation at the highest court might have forced them to meet the media. In this piquant situation, the Central government is at tenterhooks as to what to do. Seems like the government hasn’t reacted to this. Perhaps, things would be sorted out in a day or two. However, this episode will become a precedent in the judiciary. Better for judiciary to set it’s house in order soon before things turn from bad to worse.
M RAFI AHMED, Senior Journo and Chief of Bureau, Trinity Mirror, Coimbatore edition
I beg to disagree. If the four learned judges had genuine fears about the institutional credibility and trust of SC, they should have done one of the following two things: one, write to the President with exactly the same very points of their concerns which they thought to be the genuine ones (and if they feared that it may help executive to trespass inside their independent domain, they could have written to all the judges of the Supreme Court and asked for a full SC meeting). Two, submit their resignations with all those points of concerns mentioned therein. But alas, they indulged in a turf war. They also have resorted to a communist method where ‘means’ justifies the ‘end’. Is that not against the basic judicial principle of ‘due process’ which these honorable judges are required to defend and enforce in every judgement ?
The one damage this episode has done to my trust in judiciary is this: I thought that all judges are equal and non-partisan. I believed that any case going to any judge – of course with the domain background, we will get the justice: like the proverbial ‘tandul nyay’ (Tandul=rice, Nyay=justice) which means that while boiling rice, you take out one grain of rice to test if the rice has boiled enough or not. But the four judges have said that it is not so. And they have contradicted themselves there: on one hand they say that the CJI is just ‘first among the equals, nothing less and nothing more’ but at the same time they imply that senior judges – which they are, have better wisdom than the junior judges ! So, is the CJI equal to them four but they four are unequally senior to the remaining SC judges ?
good article ..but can u answer in just yes or no, do u approve the decision of the judges to go public ? given the fact that they are also bounded by certain rules and regulations.. dont you think they should have resigned and than hold the press..waiting for answer ! M_Khosla
Modi ,Amithsha &BJP smashing the truths they will be procicuted by all Indians in 2019 elections .Please people don’t elect modi & company in future elections
This is a good article and appears to be unbiased. The crisis has arised on the manner by which allocation is being done. The allocation has to be purely based on the work load, expertise and such aspects. Allocation issue at best should be an irritant to the other judges. Afterall the 25+ supreme court judges are supposed to be above suspision. If there is any reason to doubt any of them to the extent that democracy is threatened then the Coligium to which the 4 esteemed judged are part off has totally failed.
I applaud ThePrint for carrying Mr. Madhav Khosla’s balanced perspective on the dissenting judges issue.
Almost all other commentaries on this topic in ThePrint and other media outlets were unabashedly pro-establishment lamentations which underestimated the rot in the higher judiciary.
For the last couple of years, Supreme Court Chief Justices have been dragging their feet on politically sensitive cases like the note ban and Aadhaar thus ensuring they result in either becoming inconsequential or fait accompli.
Chief Justices with spine who can challenge the establishment’s status quo-ist tendencies are the need of the hour.
When judges become political or act at the behest of political figures who appointed them, they must be removed.
NOW, THE GAVEL SAYS ‘DISORDER…DISORDER’
The hurriedly convened press meet by senior most judges of the highest court of India only proves to show their ire against the CJI not only for his partisan attitude, but for denigrating them by allocating sensitive cases to junior bench. Seems like there is no love lost between the four senior judges and the CJI for quite sometime.
CJI’s denial to pay heed to their plea resulted in senior judges taking the media route to make it public. This doesn’t augur well for our country as it would become a bad precedent. Moreover, people will lose faith in the functioning of judiciary. The simmering differences between the senior judges and CJI could have been sorted out within the four walls.
Professor Upendra Baxi in his book refers Justice V R Krishna Iyer for making Supreme Court of India as Supreme Court for Indians preserving the image and decorum of the highest court of India in high esteem.
Digging deep into this, one could infer that except Justice Gogoi, the other three, who are due to retire during this year, weren’t concerned about the repercussions of this extraordinary meet as they have nothing to lose. Justice Gogoi is in the line for CJI post when the Justice Deepak Misra retires in October this year.
SHEFA RAFI, Coimbatore
These judges are giving ‘threat to democracy. they don’t want that judiciary should florish in India. One of the judge is son Congress CM of Assam. Therefore, background speaks enough.
Mr. every body known that,of background. we should focus only issue.you don’t worry about that, now came to knowledge of in judiciary system.
First of all, this is not a ‘Revolt’. Few (some four) self-centered person are trying to de-rail the SC. They are just self-centered person who have virtual no say in India. This is just a ‘attempt to control’ the judiciary. Author is trying to create a issue for ‘nothing’.
Poor and middle class people not able to get justice from your court due to decades of delays.
This is the failure in he system.
You people have summer vocation like schools.
Effective utilization of your time needs to be reviewed by President.
Political influence started from the beginning it is not new.
Address corrupt people in your departments.
Next to GOD people believe judiciary.
Police are not filing FIRs and Advocates are not closing their cases.
All the burden is put on public.
FOURSOME AWESOME
No doubt apex court judges coming out in open to vent out their spleen at the CJI is something unheard of in the annals of judiciary. However, the amount of agony faced by the senior most judges in the highest court of the country perhaps compelled them to open up the can of worms in public.
Much perturbing that even jurisprudence is polluted and corrupted with favouritism. Pushing aside seniors by CJI is yet another form of ‘discrimination’. Like the proverbial ‘robbing peter to pay paul’, the CJI transferred the medical admission scam case from Justice Chelameswar to another bench comprising younger judges. Irked by the disrespect shown towards him, Justice Chelameswar and three others had written a detailed letter to CJI which failed to evoke any response. Finally, they had no other option but to make it public the undesirable things happenings in the apex court.
Though it is unacceptable for learned senior most sitting judges to pour out their woes before the media, the gravity of the situation at the highest court might have forced them to meet the media. In this piquant situation, the Central government is at tenterhooks as to what to do. Seems like the government hasn’t reacted to this. Perhaps, things would be sorted out in a day or two. However, this episode will become a precedent in the judiciary. Better for judiciary to set it’s house in order soon before things turn from bad to worse.
M RAFI AHMED, Senior Journo and Chief of Bureau, Trinity Mirror, Coimbatore edition