While the Narendra Modi government has refused to say anything on the virtual revolt against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra by four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, a parliamentary panel will discuss the issues arising out of the unprecedented press conference of the four judges, in which they had expressed serious reservations about the manner in which the functioning of the apex court was being controlled by Justice Misra.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice headed by BJP MP Bhupender Yadav has constituted a sub-committee to go through the issues arising out of the press conference.
The members of the sub-committee are: Majeed Memon of the NCP, Rajeev Pratap Rudy of the BJP, Kalyan Banerjee, Trinamool Congress' MP in the Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta.
The government refused to respond to the crisis in the Supreme Court following the press conference by the four judges, calling it an internal matter of the court. The judges had raised the issue of “selective” assigning of “politically-sensitive cases” to certain benches, and the immediate trigger for their decision to go public with their grievances was the assigning of Judge Loya case to a junior judge.
A member of the parliamentary sub-committee said a report will be prepared on the “administrative issues” raised by the four judges. “Somebody has to intervene. The government says it cannot intervene. Should Parliament intervene? This question was debated by the standing committee, and it was decided that a sub-committee will look into the issues and prepare a report,” he said.
“Judges will come and go, but the institution is important. The credibility of the institution has to be saved. The sub-committee will look into the question of how to arrest the erosion of the credibility of the institution, its reputation, its dignity,” the MP said.
Members of opposition parties, who are part of the standing committee, had earlier demanded that the panel should look into the issues that led to the four judges deciding to bring problems in the Supreme Court to the public notice.
