'Democracy at stake', say top SC judges while taking on CJI

Top judges of the Supreme Court on Friday voiced their dissent against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and said that they were left with no choice but to speak to the media.

Supreme Court Judges Kurian Joseph, J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur spoke to the media at Tuglaq Lane in Delhi.

All four said that there are several irregularities happening within the SC and CJI is not amenable to requests of the senior four.

"Want to make our concerns public... Administration of the Supreme Court is not in order," he said.

"With no pleasure we are compelled take the decision to call a press conference. The administration of the SC is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in last few months," he added.

Justice Chelameswar said that they wanted the Chief Justice of India to rectify certain things. He also said that the CJI did not listen to senior four judges.

"We collectively tried to persuade CJI that certain things aren't in order so take remedial measures but unfortunately our efforts failed," he said.

"A few months back we gave the CJI a letter, asking him to course correct in a particular matter. Though it was done eventually, it was done in a manner that raised further doubts and questions," he added.

He also expressed displeasure over the assignment of cases. The top judge said that he does not want anyone to say that "we have sold our souls."

When asked if it was it was a no-confidence vote against CJI Dipak Mishra, Justice Lokur said, "Don't put words in our mouths."

"Nobody is breaking ranks. Construe this as our debt to the nation," said Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

Broadly there seemed to be following issues:

1.Allocation of cases by CJI.

2.Allocation of Justice Loya case.

3.Functioning of the collegium.

4.Reports also say that there was some disagreement over the Medical Council case.

#FLASH Judges J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph release 7 page letter, that they wrote to the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. pic.twitter.com/2dQ5fzTDF8

— ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018

Meanwhile, CJI Dipak Mishra is set to meet Attorney General of India KK Venugopal at 1.30 pm today.

The judges did not get into the specifics of any particular issue and said that things have been clearly mentioned in a letter.

This is for the first time in the history of India that sitting judges of the SC are addressing the media.

Oneindia News