In an effort to resolve the rift in the Supreme Court, the four ‘rebel’ judges on Thursday met Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in his chambers for the second time this week.
Four more judges — Justices AK Sikri, NV Ramana, DY Chandrachud and UU Lalit — were present in Thursday’s meeting, which lasted around 30 minutes, a report in NDTV said.
The CJI briefly met three judges — Justices Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph in the judges lounge before starting the court proceedings on Wednesday.
The move is seen as effort to resolve the unprecedented crisis that rocked the Supreme Court as well as the nation after the four judges — Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Jospeh — virtually revolted against the CJI by holding a press meet on January 12.
The judges questioned the “unilateral and biased” decisions of the CJI over the allocation of important cases to junior judges.
The judges went public with their grievances against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, saying “unless the judiciary was preserved, democracy can’t be protected in the country”.
They said though they wrote a seven-page letter to the CJI two months ago (on allocation of work), the allocation of two petitions on Friday seeking a probe into the death of former CBI sessions judge BH Loya who discharged BJP President Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, to a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra (number 10 in the rank) triggered the controversy.
