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India’s Supreme Court crisis not resolved, says AG

January 16, 2018

NEW DELHI — Indian government's chief legal advisor and its primary lawyer in the country's top court, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, Tuesday said the issue between Chief Justice of India (CJI) and four dissenting judges of the Supreme Court was yet to be resolved.

"Yes, I think it has not been settled. Let's hope things will be fully settled within two to three days," Venugopal told media.

On Monday, media quoted him as saying "everything has been settled" in the higher judiciary and "everything is under control."

The statement has also put a question mark on the claims of Bar Council of India (BCI) that Monday said the issues raised by four sitting judges of the country's top court have been resolved and the apex court was functioning normally.

"We did not want any political party to take advantage of the situation," Manan Kumar Mishra, chairman BCI, said during a press conference on Monday. "It was an internal issue which has now been resolved and all court rooms in the apex court are functioning normally."

BCI is a statutory body that regulates the legal practice and legal education in India.

Last week, in an unprecedented move four sitting judges of India's Supreme Court — Justice Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Kurien Joseph called a press conference and said apex court was not in order and many things less than desirable have happened in the past few months.

The issue highlighted the differences in India's highest judicial forum and final court.

A local newspaper — The Hindu on Tuesday quoting sources close to rebel Supreme Court judges termed the reports of conciliation as "deliberate misinformation."

"A source close to the four judges said there have been no attempts so far to resolve the issue raised by the four judges," the newspaper said.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has announced the composition of a five-judge constitution bench headed by CJI Justice Dipak Misra to hear crucial cases.

None of the four judges has been included in the bench.

One of the dissenting judges Justice Ranjan Gogoi told media the difference with the Chief Justice arose over the assignment of the cases.

Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal under the Indian constitution. It is the highest constitutional court, with the power of constitutional review. The court consists of 25 judges including the CJI. — Agencies


January 16, 2018
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