Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi today declined urgent listing of a Public Interest Litigation seeking an inquiry into the comments made by retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Kurian Joseph in a recent interview given to Times of India.
Justice Joseph had claimed that former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was being controlled by external influence, and that this had a bearing on the listing of matters having political significance.
The lawyer who mentioned the matter said that it is a question of credibility of the institution and sought urgent listing.
CJI Ranjan Gogoi was, however, unmoved.
“Credibility of the institution is not determined by newspaper reports, but by people who man it”, said Gogoi J, declining the request made.
In the interview with TOI, Justice Joseph reveals the following reasons why the four senior most judges of the Supreme Court held a press conference in January this year:
“There were several instances of external influences on the working of the Supreme Court relating to allocation of cases to benches headed by select judges and appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and high courts.
Someone from outside was controlling the CJI, that is what we felt. So we met him, asked him, wrote to him to maintain independence and majesty of the Supreme Court. When all attempts failed, we decided to hold a press conference.”
Note: The heading of this story initially stated that the petition was dismissed. However, only early listing was declined. The error is regretted.
