CJI Dipak Misra meets four dissenting senior judges ; SC announces formation of five-member Constitution Bench for important hearings
New Delhi, Jan 16 (IBNS) : In the first sign of communication after a virtual rebellion in the top judiciary, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Tuesday met with the four dissenting judges even as the Supreme Court announced composition of a five-judge Constitution bench for hearing several important cases, excluding the quartet, media reports said.
According to reports, the CJI met Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph in the afternoon and is likely to meet them once again on Wednesday.
The meeting continued for about 15 minutes.
It was not immediately known what issues were discussed in the meeting between the Justices.
The meeting was called by CJI Misra himself.
In an unprecedented event, the four senior judges had on Friday held a press conference, alleging that the goings-in in the Supreme Court were not in order and that the CJI was assigning most of the important cases to certain judges, ignoring seniority. Their allegations had a rocking effect in the judiciary as well as in other strata of society, evoking various reactions.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday announced formation of a five-member constitution bench that remains the same as the previous one that had heard matters related to Aadhaar and none of the four senior judges, who had publicly criticised the CJI, is on it.
Headed by Chief Justice Misra, the bench has Justice AK Sikri, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Ashok Bhushan as other members.
The bench will hear eight crucial cases, including Aadhaar, the validity of Section 377 of Indian Penal Code which criminalises homosexuality, the validity of adultery law under the IPC, entry of women into Kerala's Sabarimala temple and other cases.
Earlier in the day, Attorney general KK Venugopal said that the judicial crisis hasn’t been resolved.
His statement comes contradictory a day after he told the media that the rift between four senior Supreme Court judges and the Chief Justice of India had been settled.
The four judges took up their respective business on the first working day of the top court, a week after they publicly criticised the CJI.
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