Supreme Court crisis seems to be unresolved, says Attorney General Venugopal

New Delhi, Jan 16: The crisis in the Supreme Court seems to be far from over, with Attorney General K.K. Venugopal on Tuesday saying the matter seemed to be unresolved and Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Vikas Singh hoping it would be settled by this weekend.

The crisis erupted on January 12 after four senior judges — Justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph — openly castigated the functioning of the top court headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra.

“Yes, I think it has not been settled. Let’s hope things will be fully settled within 2-3 days,” Mr. Venugopal said.

The Hindu on Monday reported quoting sources close to the four judges that the differences had not been resolved yet.

When asked about reports which said that the impasse was continuing, Mr. Venugopal said he had to agree with the view.

On whether he had a meeting or had spoken with any of the four judges or the CJI, he said, “Nothing of that sort has happened.”

However, he hoped things would be sorted out in the next couple of days.

Mr. Singh, who is also a senior advocate, said on Tuesday: “By the end of this week, the crisis is likely to be resolved.”

He said that when he handed over the resolution of the SCBA to the CJI on Sunday, he had got the impression that the crisis would be resolved. The CJI was hopeful that within a week normality would return. As of now, it appeared that everything normality was returning.

SCBA resolution

The SCBA, at its emergency meeting on Saturday, passed a resolution asking the Chief Justice to convene a full court meeting and transfer all pending public interest litigation (PIL) petitions for hearing before the five senior-most judges, who are members of the collegium.

The four top Supreme Court judges resumed work on January 15, belying the simmering tensions sparked by their accusations against the Chief Justice, while the Attorney General described the unprecedented crisis as “a storm in a tea cup.”

In the presser, the four judges flagged certain problems such as the assigning of cases in the apex court. They said there were certain issues afflicting the country’s highest court.

The CJI  on Sunday met a seven-member delegation of the Bar Council of India and Mr. Singh and assured them that the crisis would be sorted out soon and congeniality would prevail.