New Delhi: All is not well in Supreme Court yet. Despite claims to the contrary by the attorney-general and BCI chief a day earlier, the CJI and the four rebel judges were back on the discussion table on Tuesday in a fresh bid to address the latter’s concerns amid signals that some developments, related to assigning of cases and composition of the Constitution Bench, may take place in the coming days to heal the rift.
The revival of the friction on Tuesday — the eve of Wednesday’s crucial hearing before the Constitution Bench on Aadhaar — seems linked to CJI Dipak Misra’s apparent decision not to reconstitute the five-judge bench to include the rebel judges — J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph — who had complained of being sidelined.
In the coming days, the Constitution Bench is likely to take up matters related to the future of lawmakers facing criminal trials, validity of a penal law on adultery, rights of Parsi women and ban on women’s entry into Kerala’s Sabarimala temple.
On Tuesday, the CJI reached out to the four judges and talked to them for 15 minutes with a view to find an amicable solution to the issues raised by them at a press conference on January 12.
The Chief Justice of India will continue the exercise on Wednesday to give a quietus to the whole issue.
One of the four judges, who attended the meeting, told this newspaper, “There is a new development. The chief called us. We had a talk and these discussions will continue tomorrow. Let us hope some development will take place for the betterment of the institution.”
The meeting on Tuesday was also attended by Justices A.K. Sikri, Uday Lalit and D.Y. Chandrachud.
In an apparent warning, the four judges had said on January 12 that the lack of impartiality in allocation of high profile cases and constitution of benches with junior judges could imperil India’s democracy.
Attorney-general K.K. Venugopal who had claimed on Monday that the storm in the apex court had blown over, admitted that he had erred in assessing the situation.
Justice Arun Mishra ‘breaks down’
“Yes, I think it has not been settled. Let us hope things will be fully settled within two to three days,” he said.
The impasse over including the four seniormost judges in the Constitution Bench still remains.
On Monday, after the customary morning tea meeting of the CJI with 22 apex court judges, including the four judges, an impression was created that all the issues had been resolved.
Also, there was no indication from the disgruntled judges to confirm the end of impasse.
Sources said that during the Monday meeting Justice Arun Mishra, whom the four judges had named while raising questions on the allotment of the PILs related to CBI special judge B.H. Loya’s death, “broke down” and accused them of tarnishing his image by indirectly questioning his integrity.
