Media Eye News Bureau: New Delhi: The four senior-most Supreme Court judges, who had held an unprecedented press conference and raised issue of assignment of cases in the Supreme Court (SC), attended court on Monday and took up routine work.
After their controversial January 12 press conference, this was the first working day of the top court, wherein the four judges, Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, took up their respective work.
In the interaction with the media, these judges had flagged some problems, including the assigning of cases in the apex court, and said there were certain issues afflicting the country's highest court, accusing by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra,of impropriety.
According to reports, the CJI "smiled but didn't answer" at the Supreme Court on Monday morning when the subject of revolt of the four senior most judges that cast aspersions on him, was raised in his courtroom.
According to reports, the CJI is yet to reach out to the four senior judges, who took him on in the unexpected press conference.
The CJI on Sunday had met a delegation of the Bar Council of India (BCI) and Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Vikas Singh and had assured them that the crisis would be resolved soon and congeniality would prevail.
Senior lawyers of the SC who met the CJI on Sunday, stated he had said he "would ensure there was congeniality in the top court at the earliest".
SCBA president Vikas Singh handed over a resolution to the CJI, which apparently supported the four judges and said all public interest litigations (PILs) should be taken up by senior judges.
The four revolting senior SC judges last Friday, astounded the country as they held a press conference at the house of Justice Chelameswar, the most senior judge in India after the CJI, and stated that the administration of the Supreme Court "is not in order".
The judges spoke out against the distribution of sensitive cases to junior judges and said without an independent judiciary, "democracy wouldn't survive".
Saying that it was "with no pleasure" that they had gone to the media, the judges said they were making their disagreement with the Chief Justice public after private talks failed to address what they said were grave issues.
Among the cases that they had taken up with the CJI over apportionment to a junior judge was that of judge BH Loya's death in 2014, a few months after he took over a case in which BJP president Amit Shah was an accused.
