In a bid to resolve their differences, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra today met the four senior most judges of the Supreme Court who had hurled several accusations against him including on the issue of allocation of PILs of sensitive nature.
The apex court sources said the Chief Justice met the four judges --Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- for about 15 minutes before starting the normal work of the day.
Some other judges were also present in the meeting, the sources said.
After the meeting, the CJI and the four judges went ahead with their listed business.
Despite optimism expressed yesterday by legal bodies, the crisis in the Supreme Court over complaints against the chief justice seemed far from over.
At a press conference last week, the four judges had flagged certain problems, including the assigning of cases by the CJI, and said there were certain issues afflicting the country's highest court.
Earlier in the day, Attorney General K K Venugopal told PTI "I think it (crisis) has not been settled. Lets hope things will be fully settled within 2-3 days."
Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Vikas Singh also exuded confidence that there was a likelihood of the crisis being resolved by the end of this week.
Yesterday, Venugopal and Bar Council of India Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra had said the crisis has ended and there is no dispute now.
In an unprecedented move, four senior Supreme Court judges addressed the media at the residence of Justice Chelameswar to place before the nation their concerns, which, according to them, failed to move the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.
On behalf of the four judges, the second most senior judge Justice Chelameswar said "administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months".
"It is an extremly painful moment for all four of us and there is no pleasure in holding this press conference," he said, adding that democracy will not survive without free judiciary.
Asked whether assignment of Judge Loya case is seen as reason behind the historic press conference by the top 4 judges, Justice Gogoi, who would be succeeding present CJI in October this year, said: "yes"
"There is an issue of assignment of a case which is raised in that letter (to CJI), Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.
(Inputs from PTI)
