Four senior judges say situation in SC ‘not in order’
In an unprecedented move, four senior most judges of the Supreme Court on Friday called a press conference and said the situation in the top court was “not in order”+ and many “less than desirable” things have taken place.
Unless this institution is preserved, “democracy will not survive in the country”.
Justice J Chelameswar, the second senior judge after the Chief Justice of India, said “sometimes administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months”.
The four judges also wrote a seven-page letter to the CJI.
Senior SC judges’ press conference: Five main issues that annoyed them
1) The four senior judges+ believe that all important cases get heard by CJI-led bench and do not get distributed to other senior judges heading benches.
2) The four judges also said there have been instances where cases that have far-reaching consequences for the nation and the judiciary were assigned by the Chief Justice selectively – to benches of their preference – and not based on rationality. “This must be guarded against at all costs,” said the 4 senior SC judges.
3) Specifically, the Four judges were annoyed that a public interest litigation seeking a probe into Judge B M Loya’s “mysterious” death was assigned to court no. 10 and not to any of the first four benches other than the CJI-led bench.
4) The judges further had a simmering grievance about the medical college admissions scam being sent to court no 7 after a Justice Chelameswar headed bench sent it to a five-judge bench of himself, the CJI, himself, and Justices Gogoi, Lokur and Joseph. The medical college admissions scam is to do with the role of sitting and retired judges of high courts in enabling private medical colleges admit students to MBBS courses despite the apex court’s order to the contrary.
5) The four judges also said that it was wrong on part of CJI to head a small bench and deal with the memorandum of procedure when it was earlier heard by a five-judge bench.
(The Times of India)