In yet another twist in the ongoing fallout in the Supreme Court, Attorney General (AG) K K Venugopal on Tuesday said that it seems that judicial crisis has not been resolved yet, adding that it is likely to be settled in the next two to three days.
On whether he had a meeting or spoke with any of the four judges or the CJI, Venugopal said, "Nothing of that sort has happened".
However, he hoped things will be sorted out in the next couple of days.
The development comes a day after him and the Bar Council of India (BCI) said that the matter has been “settled” and resolved “internally” and the four revolting judges attending work as usual.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court Bar Association president Vikas Singh today said that the crisis in the top court is likely to be resolved by the end of this week.
On a related note, the top court on Monday announced the composition of a five-judge Constitution bench headed by the CJI, which does not include the four dissenting judges -- Justice Jasti Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph.
As per official information, the 5-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A K Sikri, Justice A M Khanwilkar, Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Ashok Bhushan, will commence the hearing on a range of crucial matters from January 17.
As per the list of business for Tuesday, the 5-judge bench will hear major cases such as those challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act and its 2013 judgment re-criminalising gay sex between consenting adults.
Yesterday, Chief Justice of India (CJI) had met all four revolting judges over tea before the beginning of day’s work.
Following the meeting, Attorney General Venugopal said that the crisis has been resolved.
Terming the developments as ‘a storm in a tea cup’, he said: "Now everything has been settled. The courts are functioning. It was a storm in a tea cup."
BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, who led a seven-member delegation and held hectic parleys with 15 judges including the Chief Justice yesterday, told a press conference that all the four top judges have resolved the differences and were attending the court.
However, there was also no official word from the CJI office yet.
"Officially no development has happened," an apex court source said when asked whether there was a full court meeting of the judges of the top court.
An office bearer of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) said the situation has remained the same and perhaps the resolution passed by the bar body is still under the consideration of the judges.
The SCBA at its emergency meeting on January 13 had passed resolutions asking the CJI to convene a full court meeting and to transfer all pending PILs to the bench headed by five senior-most judges who are the members of the collegium.
In their unprecedented press conference on Friday, the four senior judges of the apex court had mounted a virtual revolt against the CJI, listing a litany of problems, including the assignment of cases. They had also raised questions over listing of PILs concerning Loya's death.
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