Supreme Court crisis: Back to work but not back to business as usual

Read | Four judges who criticised CJI Dipak Misra not on Bench that will hear 7 key matters

Of the four who went public last Friday, Justice Ranjan Gogoi was the first to sit for a court hearing followed by Justices J Chelameswar, Kurian Joseph and Madan B Lokur. The fact that the courts sat 10 minutes later than the usual time of 10.30 am briefly fuelled speculation.

There was no mention in the court rooms of the developments last Friday. The only exception was in the court room of the CJI where advocate R P Luthra — he had filed a petition questioning the delay in finalising the Memorandum of Procedure for appointments to higher judiciary — urged him to take action, referring to the press conference by the four judges but the CJI simply heard him out and moved to the next matter.

Justice Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph at the press conference. (Express Photo/Abhinav Saha)

Luthra told the CJI, who was sitting with Justices Khanwilkar and Chandrachud, that he was not representing any side, but was speaking for the nation. “Some people entered into a conspiracy and tried to defame the institution… Hope CJI will use iron hand and take action,” he said.

Luthra had challenged appointments made to the higher judiciary in the absence of the revised MoP. On October 27, a bench of Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit had issued notice to the Centre saying “we need to consider the prayer that there should be no further delay in finalisation of MoP in larger public interest. Even though no time limit was fixed by this court for finalisation of the MoP, the issue cannot linger on for indefinite period”.

This direction was objected to by the four senior judges in a letter to the CJI which they made public last Friday. The senior judges questioned the need for such a direction when the government’s silence, they said, gave the indication that the Collegium’s recommendations had been accepted.

So far, there has been no attempt to broker any kind of compromise and sources close to the four judges say there is “no question of a compromise as this is not about any accommodation being sought but about the health of an institution critical to democracy.”

The other place where all five could come face to face is the idea of a full court (where all judges would come together) but sources said this is not on the cards for now.

One cause for concern for the Chief Justice, sources said, is the meeting of the Collegium where the five senior-most sit together to decide administrative matters, including recommending judges for appointment to the Supreme Court and the High Courts. No date has been notified by the CJI so far for the next meeting of the collegium.