SC matter laid to rest: Bar Council Chairman

New Delhi, Jan 15 (IANS) Bar Council of India Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra on Monday said the issues raised by four dissenting top judges of the Supreme Court have been resolved, and that the judiciary did not want any political party to take advantage of the situation.

“As you can see the matter has been laid to rest and all court rooms in the Supreme Court are functioning normally,” Mishra told reporters here.

A seven-member delegation of the BCI on Sunday met 15 Supreme Court judges, including Chief Justice Dipak Misra, and three of the four rebel judges who went public with their differences with the Chief Justice.

The four judges — Justice J. Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph — on Friday took on the Chief Justice over allocation of cases, saying the administration of the top court was “not in order”.

“Our one point agenda in meeting these senior judges was to request them to sort out the differences among themselves. Now it appears this morning they all met and resolved it,” the BCI chairman said.

He said the BCI was only concerned about the functioning of the institution. “Now it is functioning smoothly and all courts are discharging their duties.”

However, he declined to comment on the issues related to Justice Loya’s death and other issues raised by the four senior most judges in their Friday conference.

“It is for the Supreme Court to decide the Judge Loya matter, not for BCI to comment on it.

“Our sole concern was to ensure independence of the judiciary,” he said.

Mishra said there is transparency in the judiciary and did not comment on the press conference.

He said some people tried to take advantage of the unfortunate situation but “they have failed”.