5 Supreme Court benches start proceedings late by an hour

New Delhi, April 23

Five Supreme Court benches, presided over by five senior-most judges, including CJI Ranjan Gogoi, on Tuesday started court proceedings at 11.30 am, late by an hour.

However, the other Supreme Court benches started functioning at 10.30 am, the usual time for resumption of judicial proceedings in the apex court.

The Supreme Court display board notified that from court number 1, presided over by the CJI, to court number 5 would not be holding judicial proceedings till 11.30 am.

According to sources, deliberations among top judges on certain issues were on.

On Monday, all 15 Supreme Court benches had commenced judicial proceedings at 10.45 am, 15 minutes after the usual time.

The delayed start of court proceedings had led to speculation among lawyers about some meetings of judges.

A three-judge bench headed by the CJI on Saturday had held an unprecedented hearing in the wake of allegations made against the CJI.

Describing the allegations of sexual harassment against him as “unbelievable”, the CJI had convened an extraordinary hearing at the Supreme Court during which he said a larger conspiracy was behind it and he would not stoop too low even to deny these allegations. PTI