The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 16 January, adjourned hearing on the petitions seeking an independent probe into the death of Special CBI Court Judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya.
Justice Arun Mishra adjourned the case and scheduled a hearing next week, after directing senior lawyer Harish Salve – representing the Maharashtra government – to hand over the relevant documents to the petitioners seeking a probe.
Salve told the SC that while the government had no problem in sharing the documents, the petitioners should not be allowed to make them public. Salve said that barring certain confidential reports submitted by the government, the petitioners can access other documents.
"It is a matter where they (petitioners) should know everything," said Mishra while hearing pleas.
Justice Arun Mishra Breaks Down
The informal meeting between the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and the judges of the Supreme Court on Monday morning, 15 January, witnessed some emotional moments.
Justice Arun Mishra is said to have broken down for being "unfairly" targeted by the four judges raising questions about his "competence" and "integrity."
He said that though his name was not mentioned by the four judges, inferences have been drawn from the cases referred to by the four judges including that of late CBI special court Judge BH Loya.
Justice Mishra said that he has been working hard and was overburdened. He also mentioned that he had been assigned tough cases by Chief Justices TS Thakur and JS Khehar earlier.
At this point, the Chief Justice took Justice Mishra to his chamber while Justice J Chelameswar put his arm around his shoulder and told him that they were addressing a dissonance in the functioning of the judiciary and had nothing personal against him.
The benches in Courts Number two, three, four and five headed by the rebel judges – Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph, respectively – attended to their business as usual.
Later, a lawyer RP Luthra in a mentioning before Court Number One headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that there is "a conspiracy to destroy the institution" and urged the Chief Justice to take action against the four judges.
However, the Chief Justice smiled and remained silent.
Amid a rift between Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and four of the most senior judges over allocation of important cases, the Supreme Court on Monday, 15 January, announced a five-judge Constitution bench headed by the CJI, which does not include the four judges.
None of the judges – Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph – feature in the list of members of the five-judge Constitution bench.
As per official information, the five-judge bench – comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud, and Ashok Bhushan – will commence the hearing on a range of crucial matters from 17 January.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)