Judges’ Spat Gives Executive the Advantage, Says Ram Jethmalani

The crisis within the judiciary will end once the Chief Justice’s superiority is recognised, says Ram Jethmalani

Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph said on 12 January that the situation in the top court was “not in order.” 

(Photo: IANS)

The crisis within the judiciary will end once the superiority of the Chief Justice of India is recognised, according to Senior Advocate and Former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani. The eminent jurist’s comments come at a time when the manner in which cases are allocated to Supreme Court judges has come into question.

“This is spoiling the dignity of the Supreme Court,” Jethmalani said while pointing out that the executive will take advantage of the lack of unity within the judiciary.

(Photo Courtesy: BloombergQuint)

In January this year, four of the seniormost judges of the top court, in an unprecedented press conference, raised questions about the allocation of sensitive cases by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. More recently, Former Law Minister and Senior Advocate Shanti Bhushan filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking that the listing of cases in the top court be done by the collegium of five senior most judges and not the Chief Justice of India alone.

(This story was originally published on BloombergQuint and has been republished here with permission.)