The second senior most judge in the Supreme Court J Chelameswar and three other senior judges - Justice Kurian Joseph, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan Lokur on Friday met the media to complain that the administration of the country's top court was not functioning properly.
The press conference was hurriedly called at the residence of Justice Chelameswar, No.2 in the apex court hierarchy, on various issues relating to the functioning of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court Judges at the press conference said it was with "no pleasure" that they had been compelled to make public what they were upset with.
It is too well settled in the jurisprudence of this country that the Chief Justice is only first amongst the equals - nothing more or nothing less, the four judges of the Supreme Court Judges said in a letter to Chief Justice of India.
"It is with great anguish and concern that we thought it proper to highlight certain judicial orders passed by this Court that adversely affected functioning of justice delivery system and Independence of High Courts besides impacting administrative functioning of CJI's office:" SC Judges told CJI.
"We are not mentioning details only to avoid embarrassing the institution but note that such departures have already damaged the image of this intuition to some extent," the letter added.
Reacting to the press conference by the SC judges, Justice R S Sodhi (retd) said: "Issues don't matter. It is their complaint on administrative matter. They are only 4, there are 23 others. 4 get together and show the Chief Justice in a poor light. It is immature & childish behaviour."
"It's quite shocking. There must have been compelling reasons for the senior-most judges to have adopted this course of action. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking," senior advocate KTS Tulsi said.
Excerpts from the Press Conference by Supreme Court Judges in Delhi-
# Nobody is breaking any ranks here, says Justice Madan Lokur
# It's not a sign of protest, but think of it as a sign of our responsibility towards the nation: Justice Ranjan Gogoi
# "The independence of the judiciary is the hallmark of any democracy": SC Judge J Chelameswar
# We collectively tried to persuade CJI that certain things aren't in order so take remedial measures but unfortunately our efforts failed: Justice J Chelameswar
# We don't want nation to blame us after 20 years that four of us did not take care: Justice Chelameshwar
# With no pleasure we are compelled take the decision to call a press conference. The administration of the SC is not in order & many things which are less than desirable have happened in last few months, says Justice J Chelameswar.
# Four of us thought that it was our responsibility to the institution and to the nation to persuade the chief justice that things are not in order but we failed to convince him: SC Judge J.Chelameswar
# Our efforts have failed, India's democracy is in danger, says SC Judge J Chelameswar
# Let the nation decide that: Justice J.Chelameswar on if the CJI should be impeached, says SC Judge J Chelameswar
# The CJI has left us with no option but to go public about what is going on within the Collegium, says Justice Chelameswar
# With no pleasure we are compelled take the decision to call a press conference. The administration of the SC is not in order & many things which are less than desirable have happened in last few months, says Justice J Chelameswar.
WATCH THE PRESS CONFERENCE BY SUPREME COURT JUDGES
