NEW DELHI: Days after four senior judges publicly hurled accusations against the Chief Justice of India, a bench headed by him on Monday turned down a plea for action against them after a lawyer raked up the issue in the court room.
Petitioner advocate R P Luthra said, “The temple of justice cannot be destroyed by a group of people. Please proceed, whether it is contempt. No one should be allowed to destroy the top institution.” But the Chief Justice waved him off saying “no, no”.
While Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Mishra claimed the issues had been resolved, all he did was to meet some judges, including the dissenting four, and request them to mutually sort it out. The Bar Council delegation parroted the line before all the judges. According to sources, the four judges told them, “We have raised certain important issues. The solution has to come from the other side.”
Later, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan is learnt to have sent signed letters to the top six judges in the pecking order minus the CJI, suggesting the setting up of an internal panel to look into the issues raised by the four judges. At a different level, there was also an aggressive campaign on social media with supporters of the ruling establishment questioning the path chosen by the four judges.
However, there appears to be no change in the bench handling the Justice Loya case too, as it has been listed for hearing before Justice Arun Mishra on Tuesday.