Judiciary independence a must: Chelameswar

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 22

Justice J Chelameswar, who rebelled against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra along with three other senior-most judges of the Supreme Court alleging arbitrary allocation of work, on Monday refused to comment on the issues raised by them.

“No, no, no, no... This is not the place or the time for me to speak,” Justice Chelameswar told reporters, who asked if the issue had been resolved, during the release of book “Supreme Court of India: The Beginnings”, written by late Prof George H Gadbois, Jr.During his brief speech, Justice Chelameswar, however, emphasised the importance of an independent judiciary t sustain democracy.

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“For the survival of a liberal democracy, an impartial and independent judiciary is important,” Justice Chelameswar said in the presence of some fellow judges and senior lawyers.

In an unprecedented move, Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph had on January 12 held a press conference at Justice Chelameswar’s residence and accused the CJI of arbitrarily allocating work to his colleagues.

He said scholars studied institutions because of academic reasons. People who were part of an institution had interest in the institution but didn’t have time to look at it systemically. “People like me who are interested in sustaining and protecting the institution, must keep analysing it and examining it...,” the judge said.

He also raised the issue of huge pendency, particularly in the Supreme Court where more than 50,000 cases remained pending. “The backlog appears to be huge, impossible to be cleared... A solution must be found if the institution is to remain relevant,” he said.