United we stand: Letter to BS on judges going to people's court against CJI

The nation awaits a display of a collective statesmanship by judges in general and CJI in particular to address the crisis of its institutional credibility

This is with reference to “Mutiny in SC Ranks” (January 13). In the entire controversy over the propriety of the four sitting senior most judges of the Supreme Court (SC) going public, one need not see the wood for the trees. To be fair to them, they did not rush into taking such an unprecedented step of calling a press conference without first making repeated and sincere efforts internally to persuade the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to take remedial measures. The CJI , according to them, was not amenable to their points of view. Their observation that “unless this institution is persevered and it maintains its equanimity, democracy will not survive in this country” — is as strong and loaded as it could be. It must not be brushed aside lightly. Assigning cases of “far reaching consequences to the nation” to junior hand-picked judges against the time- tested convention, practice and tradition by itself raises very disturbing questions for the institutional integrity of the country’s apex court as it has the potential of impacting the quality of its justice deliverability in public perception. It is a watershed moment for the SC. The nation awaits a display of a collective statesmanship by the judges in general and the CJI in particular to address the crisis of its institutional credibility.

S K Choudhury, Bengaluru

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