In a bid to resolve the issue that has put people’s trust on the Judiciary under doubt, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and the four dissenting judges — Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph — held talks this afternoon. However, it was not immediately known as to why judges met or whether the meeting was related to the ongoing crisis or not.
The two sides are likely to meet once again on Wednesday.
It was learnt from sources that the meeting was called by CJI Misra himself, and it will continue on Wednesday as issues raised at today’s meeting remained unresolved. Speaking on the matter, sources close to the apex court said meeting went for about 15 minutes before starting the normal work of the day. The sources added that some other judges were also present in the meeting and after that, all the four judges went ahead with their listed business.
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However, it was reported that despite the optimism, the crisis in the Supreme Court over complaints against the Chief Justice seemed far from over.
Earlier in the day, Attorney General K K Venugopal expressed the crisis will be settled soon. He said: “I think it (crisis) has not been settled. Lets hope things will be fully settled within 2-3 days.” On Monday, Venugopal and Bar Council of India Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra had said the crisis has ended and there is no dispute now.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Vikas Singh also exuded confidence that there was a likelihood of the crisis being resolved by the end of this week. On Sunday, CJI Misra had met a seven-member delegation of the Bar Council of India. After the meeting, Singh had assured them that the crisis would be sorted out soon.
The four Supreme Court Judges took the nation by storm as they lashed out CJI Dipak Misra and alleged administerial wrongdoings in the top court’s functioning. The judges are the top four in the Supreme Court in hierarchy after CJI Misra. Making an unprecedented move, the judges came out in the open and revealed their disagreements with the Chief Justice.
Making significant remarks, Justice Chelameswar had said, “Four of us are convinced, the democracy will not survive. We met CJI this morning, with the specific request but we could not convince him. We had no choice but to communicate to the nation to take care of the institution. We place it before people of the country.”