To, My lord the Chief Justice of India,
My Lord the Chief Justice act as a statesman to resolve the crisis within temple of Justice and gracefully lead a solution in the interest of justice.The health of Supreme Court under your Chief Justiceship is not well.Take a call.People of this great nation have huge faith in the institution of Judiciary and particularly the Supreme Court that deserves to be preserved at all costs. Recent happenings within the precincts of Supreme Court were saddening and looked like mutiny.It has deeply dented the prestige and majesty of Supreme Court not only with the stakeholders like me and my fellow practising colleagues in Supreme Court.the millions of people of this great nation and the litigants. Four senior most wise Judges of Supreme Court one of them likely to be the next Chief Justice after you ,conscious of their constitutional duties came out openly before the people’s Court by addressing a press conference criticising your lordship as Chief Justice for your style of administration and the allocation of cases. The unprecedented way with which these four judges addressed the media has resulted in huge debate in the Country.Lawyers,formerJudges,politicians.analyst s and concerned citizens are taking sides saying – that the Judges should not have gone public and; saying they had no other option. Judge Jasti Chelmeswar with his three other Judges Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph said they were forced to call press Conference as they seem to have failed to convince the chief Justice -”That administration of the Supreme Court is not in order and many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last few months.The Judges said they wrote a letter to CJI and tried to persuade him to take redressal steps but failed.A request was made to him to do matters of common concern in a perticular manner but was done in such a way that it left further doubt on the integrity of the institution.Unless the institution of Supreme Court is preserved,democracy wouldn’t survive.” The tipping point for the Judges to go public seems to be the case of Judge Loya.Two petitions demanding a thorough probe into his mysterious death were listed before a bench headed by a Judge who is tenth in seniority.Protesting Judges said these matters should have been heard by some judge more senior.The other flash points of the controversy are MCI bribery case,the MOP verdict and the Arbitrary Constitution of benches.These issues are at surface,what lies beneath are more serious questions and the attribution of more insidious motives. The way out involves just not what-? But who-?.It has to be you alone as the Chief Justice who has to reach out to your brother and sister Judges as a first among equals to earn back their collective trust and confidence and carry all the judges together in discharge of their debt to perform their duties in accordance with constitutionalism and judicial discipline.Dithering to resolve the intra-Judges conflict and crisis of mutual confidence will cost the nation dear and; that would colossally shake the people’s faith in the great institution of Supreme Court. Ashok Bhan is a senior advocate in Supreme Court of India and chairman Kashmir Policy and Strategy Group
