“Great Anguish and Concern”

4 Senior most judges of Supreme Court of India, Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph made public their dissatisfaction with the way things are being run by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. In a letter written to Chief Justice Misra, the four judges express their “great anguish and concern” regarding certain judicial orders passed by the Court. Some key takeaways from the letter:

“The convention of recognizing the privilege of the Chief Justice to form the roster and assign cases to different members/benches of the Court is a convention devised for a disciplined and efficient transaction of business of the Court, but not a recognition of any superior authority, legal or factual of the Chief Justice over his colleagues. It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of the country that the Chief Justice is only the first among the equals – nothing more or nothing less…”

“We are sorry to say that off later the twin rules mentioned above have not been strictly adhered to. There have been instances where case having far-reaching consequences for the Nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justices of this Court selectively to the benches “of their preference” without any rational basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs.”

“…there should be no further delay in finalising the Memorandum of Procedure in the larger public interest. When the Memorandum of Procedure was the subject matter of a decision of a Constitution Bench…it is difficult to understand as to how any other Bench could have dealt with the matter.”

“Any issue with respect to the Memorandum of Procedure should be discussed in the Chief Justices’ Conference and by the Full Court. Such a matter of grave importance, if at all required to be taken on the judicial side, should be dealt with by none other than a Constitution Bench.”

 

READ & DOWNLOAD THE LETTER

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