2 apex court judges ask CJI to convene full court

Two senior judges of the Supreme Court, Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Madan B Lokur, have asked the Chief Justice of India to hold a full court to discuss the institutional issues plaguing the judiciary.

The letter was written a day before Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu rejected the opposition impeachment notice against CJI Dipak Misra.

The issue raised in the letter is understood to have come up on Monday morning at the tea meeting attended by all the judges, which had resulted in a delayed start of the day’s court proceedings by about 15 minutes.

Justice Gogoi, who is next in line to become the CJI, and Justice Lokur had given a joint two-line letter on April 22 in which they spoke about holding of a “full court”.

Justice J Chelameswar had on March 21, followed by a similar missive on April 9 by Justice Kurian Joseph, sought the setting up of a bench of seven senior-most judges to deal with “executive interference” on appointment of judges.

Justice Chelameswar raised the issue of Karnataka judge P Krishna Bhat, who was not elevated to the High Court despite the Collegium’s recommendation. Justice Joseph, for his part, had expressed his serious concern over the government not clearing two names — senior advocate Indira Malhotra and Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K M Joseph — recommended for appointment as the SC judges.

The short letter by Justices Gogoi and Lokur urged the CJI to convene a full court on the judicial side to discuss institutional issues and the “future” of the top court, sources said.

According to convention, a full court meeting of the Supreme Court, involving all judges, is usually convened by the CJI when a matter of public importance relating to the judiciary comes up.