‘Hope Justice Gogoi is not superseded’

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 7

Justice J Chelameswar, who along with three other senior-most judges spoke against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in January, expressed hope on Saturday that the act of going public will not come in the way of elevation of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next CJI.

“I hope it (supersession of Justice Gogoi) will not happen. If it happens it will only prove that what we said at press conference is true,” Justice Chelameswar, who is due to retire on June 22, said in response to a question at an event in the Capital.

Justice Chelameswar was responding to a direct question if he was apprehensive that Justice Gogoi might not be elevated as the next CJI when Justice Misra retires. The interaction took place after the judge delivered a talk on ‘Role of judiciary in democracy’.

As per judicial convention, Justice Gogoi, who was among the judges who held an unprecedented press conference on January 12, is to become the next CJI on October 3 after the retirement of Justice Misra.

Asked if there were sufficient grounds to seek the CJI’s impeachment, Justice Chelameswar disapproved of the move, saying it can’t be the answer for every problem plaguing the judicial system.

“The other day, someone was asking for my impeachment. I don’t know why this nation is worried about impeachment so much. In fact, we wrote in the judgment of Justice CS Karnan that apart from that there must be mechanisms to put the system in order. Impeachment can’t be the answer for every question or every problem,” he said.

Justifying the January 12 unprecedented press conference, he said it was to express concern and anguish over the Supreme Court’s functioning. He also ruled out taking any employment from government after his retirement.

On the controversy over the CJI’s administrative powers as “master of roster”, he said it has to be exercised with responsibility and Bench allocation has to be done for achieving public good. “You don’t exercise the power merely because you have it,” he added.

Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph had on January 12 held a press conference and publicly criticised CJI Misra for allocating cases to judges in an arbitrary manner. The situation in the Supreme Court was “not in order” and many “less than desirable” things had taken place in the last few months, they had said.

Accusing the government of interfering in judicial appointments, Justice Chelameswar had last month demanded a Full Court on the judicial side to deal with it.

“I am of the opinion that this matter is now ripe for the consideration of the Full Court on the judicial side, if this institution really is to be any more relevant in the scheme of the Constitution,” Justice Chelameswar had written in his letter dated March 21 addressed to the Chief Justice of India.

The event was attended by former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, senior counsel Raju Ramachandran and author Ram Chandra Guha.