4 rebel' judges meet CJI, submit roster proposal in efforts to end SC impasse

New Delhi: The four ‘rebel judges’ met Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra Thursday morning over a cup of tea and submitted a ‘proposal on roster’ in order to resolve the issues raised by them at the press conference on January 12.

Highly placed sources told Deccan Chronicle that besides the CJI, four other judges - AK Sikri, NV Ramana, Uday Lalit and DY Chandrachud also participated in the “conciliatory talks” that lasted for about 30 minutes.

However, when asked whether any settlement was arrived at, the sources said “no”.

They added that the talks were held in a cordial atmosphere but the impasse still continues as no major breakthrough could be achieved. The CJI has agreed to consider their proposal and meet them again next week.

The four judges - J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph were aggrieved over the roster system being followed by CJI Misra for selectively allocating cases to some of the junior judges, including the assignment of case seeking probe into the death of former CBI judge HB Loya under mysterious circumstances.

Loya was earlier handling the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case involving BJP President Amit Shah but he refused to discharge him from the case. The judge who succeeded Loya subsequently discharged Shah.

The four judges alleged that the situation in the Supreme Court was not in order and said that many "less than desirable" things have taken place in the last few months. In an apparent warning, the judges added that lack of impartiality in allocation of high profile cases and constitution of benches with junior judges could imperil India’s democracy.

Sources, without disclosing the contents of the proposal submitted to the CJI, said that the proposal contained several issues to be resolved in the interest of the institution.