The unprecedented crisis gripping the Supreme Court continues to rage, even as Attorney General K K Venugopal ~ the central government’s top law officer ~ Tuesday made a U-turn from his Monday’s position, conceding that the conflict between Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and four seniormost judges after him has remained “unresolved”.
However, there were some signs of a possible thaw on Tuesday as CJI Misra met the four ‘rebel’ 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 following which the CJI and the four top judges went ahead with the listed business of their courtrooms.
The meeting took place in the chamber of the CJI, who had requested the four top judges to meet him. The five seniormost judges, who are members of the Collegium, agreed that the institution was capable of resolving all issues by itself, sources said.
The meeting, however, remained inconclusive and the CJI is likely to hold another round of meeting with the four judges on Wednesday to deliberate on the issues raised by them against him.
The AG had on Monday claimed that all their issues had been settled and that it was all a “storm in a tea cup”.