A pillar crumbled a little. The edifice tottered just that bit. And the world watched, stupefied and taut with tension, as bits of mortar went flying. Who could have foreseen an event that raised questions of the State from what seemed a routine, administrative event in the Supreme Court? When, on June 12 last year, the four seniormost colleagues of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) approached him with an issue related to work allocation? All they wanted settled was an objection to his marking a politically sensitive case to a particular judge.