BJP accuses Congress of politicising 'internal affairs' of judiciary

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday accused Congress of politicising the "internal affairs" of the Supreme Court.

"Today we had a press conference which was addressed by four respected judges of Supreme Court. All those issues in the press conference pertained to interior issues of judiciary. It pertained to administrative issues of the highest court in the country. It was an internal affair of the judiciary," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said.

The BJP's reaction came after Congress called a press conference and read out a statement calling the comments made by four Supreme Court judges "extremely disturbing" and appealed to the full Supreme Court to find solutions to preserve the independence of the judiciary.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi demanded that the PIL concerning the death of Judge B.H. Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin fake shootout case, should be entrusted to the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court who should ensure a thorough and impartial investigation of the case by an independent SIT.

But Patra, slamming the Congress, said that Indian democracy "has shown the mirror" to the party, and termed its attempt "to fish (for) an opportunity where none existed politically" wrong.

"None of us should politicise issues of judiciary and this is an advice to Congress party. The people of this country are watching Congress party exposing itself," he added

Divisions in the Supreme Court burst out in the open on Friday when four senior-most judges took an unprecedented step of addressing the media to accuse Chief Justice Dipak Misra of breaching rules in assigning cases to appropriate benches, with one of them pointing to the plea regarding the mysterious death of Special CBI judge B.H. Loya.

At a hurriedly-called press conference at his residence, Justice J. Chelameswar and three other colleagues said the Supreme Court administration was "not in order" and their efforts to persuade Justice Misra even this morning "with a specific request" failed, forcing them to "communicate with the nation" directly.

--IANS

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