10/11 [Friday] [3pm To 4.35pm] –Supreme Court Of India- Court No:1

The events that unfolded in the Supreme Court of India on Friday, the 10th of November 2017, were unbecoming of it. While some would call it a ‘constitutional crisis’, it was in reality, a public display of loss of faith amongst brother Judges.The constitution of an extraordinary Constitution Bench took the lawyers by surprise as the proceedings were unprecedented in the history of the Supreme Court.It was Friday, a miscellaneous day in the Supreme Court and most of the lawyers had left the Court by noon. Around 2.55pm, the lawyers and media personnel were surprised to hear about the sudden constitution of an extraordinary Constitution Bench scheduled at 3pm. The lawyers were in fact eagerly waiting for the Constitution Bench comprising of the first five senior Judges which was constituted and scheduled to sit on 13.11.2017, the coming Monday, as per the order of Chelameswar,J. and Abdul Nazeer,J.“What was the urgency for such a sudden constitution of a new bench? What are the issues? Why such a Constitution Bench with different set of Judges, when a Bench comprising of five senior most Judges was already constituted, whether rightly or wrongly? What if the same issue would be considered again by the forthcoming Constitution Bench on Monday? If Justice Chelameswar’s order is improper, why couldn’t that issue also be considered by the Monday Bench? Is there any disqualification for the Chief Justice to constitute the Bench?” were some of the questions that perplexed the lawyers.It was later revealed that the office bearers of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who are parties to the Writ Petition in matter, were informed as late as at 2:40 pm about the sitting of the Constitution Bench. A good 20 minutes before!There also existed some confusion about the number of Judges on the extraordinary Constitution Bench. The first list released by the registry showed that it comprised of seven judges, including A.K Sikri,J. and Ashok Bhushan,J. who heard the same Petition in the forenoon as item 60 in Court no.6. Later, however, another communication came up, excluding the names of these two Judges While hearing the petition, Sikri,J. had given an impression that the matter would be tagged along with the case already posted before the Constitutional Bench scheduled on Monday. However, the order was to place the writ petition before the Chief Justice of India. The exact wordings of the order came to light when the CJI handed over a copy of Justice Sikri’s order to Mr. Bhushan during the course of the hearing.https://twitter.com/jaideepgupta/status/929281465644351489Mr. Bhushan, who rushed to the Court on receiving the news of the new Bench, requested the Bench for time to respond. His request was however turned down.Thus started the proceedings of the fastest ever constituted Constitutional Bench in the history of Supreme Court. Right from the start, any experienced lawyer could sense the mood of the Bench as if it had already decided to nullify the order rendered by Chelameswar,J. and S. Abdul Nazeer,J.The CJI spent the initial few minutes explaining the orders that he had passed and directed the Additional Solicitor General P. S. Narasimha to read the orders passed in the Medical College matters. He then asked the ASG to point out the illegality in those orders. The CJI added that he had initiated in-house proceedings against one High Court judge regarding an order passed based on the letter of Advocate General.The Chief Justice of India soon raised his tone much above the normal and challenged Mr. Bhushan to point out any corruption in the orders. In response Mr. Bhushan requested the CJI to recuse himself from hearing. The group voice of SCBA officers was heard saying “ No one can compel a judge to recuse himself.” Mr Bhushan told the CJI that an FIR is lodged against him. The Chief Justice of India then challenged Mr. Bhushan to show the FIR against him. Mr Bhushan began reading the FIR and the persons named therein.There was no mentioning of the CJI in it, but Mr.Bhushan began to explain. CJI told Mr Bhushan that he was liable for contempt to which Bhushan retorted that “This will bring disrepute to the institution”.The Centre was duly represented by Additional Solicitor General Mr. P.S.Narasimha, revealing the position of the Union of India in this ‘constitutional crisis’. Though initially the ASG tried to persuade the Court to take contempt against the middlemen involved in bribery, he did not to persuade it further. Mr. P.S. Narasimha introduced an interesting legal proposition arguing that” Administrative power of Chief Justice of India should be treated as Constitutional power”. The ASG and the office bearers of the SCBA seemed well-prepared to argue, as if this was a regular pre-notified Constitution Bench. They were not short of judgments, precedents and provisions of the Supreme Court Rules. The CJI appeared to be enjoying the support that he was receiving from the SCBA ...

10/11 [Friday] [3pm To 4.35pm] –Supreme Court Of India- Court No:1

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