Justice Chelameswar refuses to list PIL on 'master of roster' issue, says does not want one more reversal

"I don't want one more reversal of my order in the next 24 hours," said Justice J Chelameswar, a remark reflecting an apparent continuing rift between him and the Chief Justice of India.

An exasperated Justice Chelameswar also accused "someone" of running a "relentless tirade" against him as if he was trying to "grab something" as he turned down listing of a PIL by former law minister Shanti Bhushan questioning the existing roster practice of allocation of cases.

The strong comments came when activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan approached the bench seeking urgent listing of the PIL filed by his father stating that the "master of roster" cannot have "unguided and unbridled discretionary powers, exercised arbitrarily by the CJI by hand-picking benches of select judges" and sought formulation of guidelines for allocation of cases.

After the rift between CJI Dipak Misra and Justice Chelameswar had surfaced for the first time in November last year, a new practice was introduced under which urgent mentioning of all matters was being done only before the CJI-headed bench.

Disregarding the practice, Bhushan rushed to Justice Chelameswar-headed bench, and sought urgent listing of the PIL on the ground that the CJI was a party in the petition and there was an "emergency situation".

However, Justice Chelameswar told Bhushan that "someone is running a relentless tirade against me that I am up to grab something. There is nothing I can do much in this. I am sorry. You please understand my difficulty."