Indian SC judges lash out at chief justice

Four Indian top court judges has exposed a rift with country's Chief Justice over administrative issues including distribution of cases to judges and judicial appointments.

Justices Kurian Joseph, Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur addressed a news conference in New Delhi of India on Friday over the issue.

The four justices said the issues are serious enough to prompt them to go public.

“The four of us are convinced that unless this institution is preserved and it maintains its equanimity, democracy will not survive in this country,” Justice Jasti Chelameswar said on the lawns of his residence in the Indian capital.

The justices gave few details of the incidents they were referring to, but released a letter they had written to Chief Justice Dipak Misra.

In the letter, they mentioned instances of cases with “far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution” that were selectively assigned by the chief justice without any rational “basis for such assignment”.

All Supreme Court judges should be involved in setting the procedures used to hire and promote judges in various courts in the country, including the high courts, they added.

Reuters says, journalists could not immediately reach the chief justice for comment. Country's Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad declined to comment.

Some Supreme Court lawyers praised the justices’ action.