New Delhi: In a first, four sitting judges of the Supreme Court have said that there is an immediate need to protect the judicial system in the country in order to protect democracy.
The senior most judges Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph said that they had failed to convince the chief justice about the same.
Addressing a press conference at the residence of Justice Chelameswar, the Apex court judges said:
“We met CJI with a specific request which unfortunately couldn’t convince him that we were right therefore, we were left with no choice except to communicate it to the nation that please take care of the institution,” Justice Chelameswar said.
The judges had written to the chief justice regarding certain judgments passed by the top court which have ‘adversely affected the overall functioning of the justice system’.
However, according to them, the CJI was not convinced, which forced the judges to come in front of the people.
While concluding the press conference, Justice Chelameswar said, ” There are many wise men saying many wise things in this country. We don’t want wise men saying 20 years from now that Justice Chelameswar, Gogoi, Lokur and Kurian Joseph sold their souls and didn’t do the right thing by our constitution.”
The four judges got support from senior lawyer Parshant Bhushan who said that the chief Justice was ‘misusing his powers’.
“It is certainly a very serious development which has cast a huge shadow on the Chief Justice. Somebody had to confront the situation, where Chief Justice is blatantly misusing his powers, hence the unprecedented step,” Bhushan said.
However, there were some who called for their impeachment.
I think all four judges should be impeached, they have no business to sit there and deliver verdicts anymore. This trade unionism is wrong. Democracy in danger is not for them to say, we have parliament, courts, police functioning,” said Justice R.S. Sodhi (Retd).
Read the full text of the letter sent to the CJI here.
Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha while reacting to the press conference of the Supreme Court Judges said that ‘when national interest is at stake, rules of the business do not apply’.
Absolutely unprecedented, the press conference of the four senior judges of supreme court. Most important take away ‘when national interest is at stake ordinary rules of business do not apply.
— Yashwant Sinha (@YashwantSinha) January 12, 2018
