2018 Supreme Court of India crisis

The Supreme Court of India was in crisis after a press conference was given by Supreme Court judges Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur, and Kurian Joseph, in which they spoke against the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra[1][2] that he allocated certain politically controversial cases to such benches which give favourable judgements towards a political party.

The four judges:

The judges mentioned the allocation of the case of investigation of death of Special CBI Judge — BH Loya, who was presiding over Sohrabuddin encounter case, in which the BJP President Amit Shah and Rohith Shah were the prime accused.

Background

On 12 January 2018, four Supreme Court judges Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph gave a press meeting in an unprecedented manner. Chelameswar said, “We tried to collectively persuade the chief justice that certain things are not in order and therefore you should take remedial measures....Unfortunately, our efforts failed.” He also said, “that unless this institution is preserved and it maintains its equanimity, democracy will not survive in this country.” This occurred after Misra headed the bench which dismissed the CJAR petition against him, and after the Justice Loya case had attracted scrutiny.[3] The allegations against Misra were related to the allotment of matters to benches and constituting Constitution Benches in a way that arbitrarily ignored Senior Judges of the Court. These important cases were heard by benches headed by Dipak Misra. The judges claimed to have a written a letter to Dipak Misra for which they had not received a reply.[4][5][6][7] After the press conference, Misra created a new judicial roster which excluded those who spoke against him from all constitution benches.[8]

Proposed impeachment of the Chief Justice of India

On 20 April 2018, seven opposition parties submitted a petition to the Vice President Venkaiah Naidu seeking impeachment of Dipak Misra with signatures from 71 parliamentarians.[9] On 23 April 2018, the petition was rejected by Venkaiah Naidu.[10]

References
  1. "Stunning mutiny in Supreme Court ranks, 4 judges take on Chief Justice of India". The Economic Times. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  2. "Top 4 SC judges revolt against Chief Justice, question 'biased decisions'". Deccan Chronicle. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  3. Dev, Atul. "Dipak Misra's shadow over the Supreme Court". The Caravan. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  4. "Turmoil in Supreme Court: Top developments". The Times of India. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  5. "India Supreme Court judges: Democracy is in danger". BBC News. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  6. "Top judges angry about functioning of India's Supreme Court". Fox News. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  7. Ashok Sharma (12 January 2018). "Judges angry about functioning of India's Supreme Court". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 12 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  8. Dev, Atul. "Dipak Misra's shadow over the Supreme Court". The Caravan. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  9. "Chief Justice Dipak Misra Faces Impeachment Motion, 71 Have Signed: 10 Facts". NDTV.com. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  10. Phukan, Sandeep (2018-04-23). "Venkaiah Naidu rejects impeachment notice against CJI; Opposition MPs are "unsure of their own case," he says". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
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