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Former Chief Justice of India TS Thakur on Saturday spoke out against the controversial 12 January press conference held by four senior judges of the Supreme Court, saying they "need not look for outside help for resolving their institutional problems".
Justice Thakur was referring to the presser by four senior judges – Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph – who had virtually raised revolt against Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra by levelling litany of allegations against him.
The former CJI, who dubbed the presser as a "disturbing" event, said that the issues brought into public domain in the press conference gave the media and the politicians an opportunity to discuss matter which "ought to have been addressed and solved within the confines of the Supreme Court".
"No political party or media house or politician can be accused of indiscretion when judges of the Supreme Court make a public statement that democracy in the country is in danger," he said.
Justice Thakur said that when judges want the nation to decide issues, which they can and ought to decide themselves, anyone witnessing it would feel disturbed by the development that the highest judiciary was unable to decide issues concerning its working and was taking it to the public at large.
Justice Thakur was speaking on the topic of 'Independence of Judiciary' at an event organised by an NGO, Global Jurists, founded by former Delhi High Court judge Kailash Gambhir who also expressed similar views about the 12 January presser.
"An appeal to the nation is not what would have helped the judges. I firmly believe that judges need not look for outside help for resolving their institutional problems. There is a tremendous reservoir of talent in the Supreme Court which can and ought to be used for finding solutions. Judges have to look within and not without for guidance," he said.
He further said:
The remarks by Thakur came a day after Justice Chelameswar shared the dias with CJI Misra on the last working day of the apex court.
The Supreme Court has gone on a summer break and Justice Chelameswar will retire during the vacation on 22 June. It is a custom in the apex court that a judge on the last working day before retirement shares the dias with the CJI.
Justice Gambhir, who also spoke at the event, referred to the stalled elevation of Uttarakhand Chief Justice K M Joseph to the apex court and said that instead of the "internal bickerings", the collegium ought to have sent the file back to the government immediately.
He said that the independence of the judiciary was threatened not only by the political executive, but also from within itself.
He also termed as shocking the row between the CJI on one side and the four senior most judges on the other.
Apart from him, the other speakers included former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Vijender Jain, former veteran scribe H K Dua and former Law Commission Member Mool Chand Sharma who said that the recent attempt to impeach CJI Misra by the Congress was a "political tool to threaten and scare" the judiciary as the party did not have the numbers to support their move.
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