Justice Chelameswar vents anguish over affairs in SC

The apparent rift between the Chief Justice of India and Justice J Chelameswar today came to the fore again with the senior most judge expressing anguish over the affairs in the Supreme Court and refusing to list a PIL questioning the existing roster practice of allocation of cases by the CJI.

Justice Chelameswar accused "someone" of running a "relentless tirade" against him as if he was trying to "grab something".

The strong observations of the judge came when activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan approached the bench seeking urgent listing of a PIL filed by his father and former law minister Shanti Bhushan seeking (a change in) the existing master of roster concept and formulation of guidelines for allocation of cases in top court.

As Justice Chelameswar refused to heed to Bhushan's request, the lawyer moved the CJI's bench which assured him that the matter would be looked into.

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, as per which, urgent mentioning of all matters was being done only before the bench headed by CJI.

Disregarding the practice, Bhushan rushed to court number 2, presided over by Justice Chelameswar, 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 "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."
The bench headed by CJI said, "We will look into it."