In a truly unprecedented move today, the 4 senior most judges of the Supreme Court, after the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, held a press conference, to let the nation know of “their failed efforts” to convince the Chief Justice to take steps to protect the institution. The four judges are Justices J Chelameswar, Madan B Lokur, Ranjan Gogoi and Kurian Joseph.
After this explosive press conference, many past justices reacted. While some supported the 4 senior judges and their methods, some like Justice Sodhi were extremely unhappy with the way things have been unfolding.
Now, the former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee has also reacted to these developments.
He said, to IndiaToday, that he finds its very distressing that 4 judges of the Supreme Court should hold a press conference and come out with their grievances against the Chief Justice of India. He said that even if there is some substance to the grievances, by adoption this method they have compromised the public perception of the Judiciary. He said that the public should never see the Judiciary as a divided house because the faith of the public in the judiciary is important. He reiterated how disappointed he was. He said he was not in favour of this move.
When asked about the specific accusations hurled by the 4 senior judges, of the CJI assigning benches to very high profile cases as per his own preference, former attorney general Soli Sorabjee wondered how the 4 senior judges could make such charges about the Chief Justice and that too, in the open. He said this was a bad move and this would have terrible repercussions for the independence of the judiciary.
‘I find it very disappointing’, reacts former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee on SC judges’ press conference
Watch more videos at https://t.co/NounxnP7mg#ITVideopic.twitter.com/BlCqkGMFQP— India Today (@IndiaToday) January 12, 2018
Former Supreme Court Justice Santosh Hedge also held similar views.
He said that their grievances with the Chief Justice of India might be legitimate, but their modus operandi was incorrect. He said that unlike the Legislature and Executive, the Judiciary functions in a different manner. It has always kept its problems private and tried to find solutions. He was of the opinion that if these judges couldn’t find the solution within the Judiciary, they should have approached the Government to form some sort of commission and that would have been the best way. He said that the problems enunciated by the 4 senior judges is not new and have always been there and that previously solutions were found and the Judiciary was kept out of public controversy. He said the method adopted this time is very unfortunate.
‘The method by which they are trying to find a solution to the problem is very unfair’, says former Supreme Court Justice Santosh Hegde on SC judges’ PC
Watch more videos at https://t.co/NounxnP7mg#ITVideo pic.twitter.com/7oS1blePuW— India Today (@IndiaToday) January 12, 2018
