CJI Dipak Misra holds meeting with rebel judges, but crisis in Supreme Court far from resolution

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Thursday held a second meeting with four senior-most Supreme Court judges in three days and discussed issues like allocation of sensitive cases but no immediate solution to the unprecedented crisis seems to be in sight. At the meeting between the CJI and four judges — Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph — which lasted for around 10-15 minutes, sources said the CJI was told that he was aware of the demands raised by them. The first meeting between the two sides after the virtual revolt by the four judges at a press conference last Friday was on Tuesday. Sources said that some progress was made on Thursday amid indications that further talks are likely to take place on Monday as the CJI assured the four dissenting judges that he will consider the issues and suggestions raised by them on various matters. [caption id=“attachment_4309249” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Supreme Court. AP[/caption] Justice Chelameswar has left for Chennai on a scheduled visit. At Thursday’s meeting, a source close to one of the four judges said there were other judges who have been actively having parleys with the CJI and the four dissenting judges to resolve the crisis. Justices AK Sikri, NV Ramana, UU Lalit and DY Chandrachud were reported to be among those judges. However, sources said that the “crisis has not yet been resolved”. Sources said that Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao have also visited Justice Chelameswar’s official residence more than once since the 12 January news conference. A source associated with the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) said that the four judges have been pressing for the roster system of assignment of court matters as has been suggested by the association to the CJI. SCBA president Vikas Singh said he was hopeful that the issue will be resolved early next week as the CJI has been getting suggestions on allocation of work similar to what has been suggested by it. While Chelameswar was on leave on Wednesday, Justice Gogoi had a meeting with him in the evening. On Wednesday, the meeting between the four judges and the CJI could not take place as Justice Chelameswar was indisposed. At last week’s press conference, the four senior-most judges of the apex court had raised a litany of problems, including assigning of cases in the top court, and said there were certain issues afflicting the country’s highest court.