Differences among judges not coming in way of collegium's work: Justice Chelameswar

Justice J Chelameswar today said the differences between Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court was not coming in way of the smooth functioning of the collegium and deliberations are taking place for the appointment of judges in the higher judiciary.

He said though there were some differences between the judges, this does not mean they do not see eye to eye.

"None of us are fighting for private property. Differences are on institutional issues, that does not mean that we do not see eye to eye," he said while delivering a talk on the 'Role of judiciary in democracy'.

He was responding to a question on the current status of the collegium, whether it's divided 4:1 or dismantled after the discord between the four senior-most judges and the CJI after the January 12 press conference.

He said the five senior judges who are part of the collegium met last evening as well as last week.

On being questioned that despite a new system of allocation of cases being adopted, public interest litigations (PILs) are not being allocated to him or any other judge, he said the CJI is the "master of the roster".

When pressed further that the top four judges are not handling important cases like the Ayodhya land dispute, Aadhaar and land acquisition related matters and does it not concern him, Justice Chelameswar said, "He (CJI) is the master of roster, if he wants to do it, let him do it. I never complained. I am least interested in these cases.