Press Conference, Impeachment Motion & More : Major SC Events Of 2018

Drama, high-suspense, unprecedented events, unexpected twists- the year 2018 took the Supreme Court through a roller coaster ride of events.With the dawn of the new year, it is worthwhile to have a retrospect of major SC events of 2018.Judges Press ConferenceJanuary 12 began as an otherwise slow news day for the legal correspondents. Then suddenly this news broke that four senior SC judges- Justices Chelameswar, Kurian Joseph, Gogoi and Lokur- were going to hold a press conference at the residence of Justice Chelameswar. The news was initially greeted with disbelief. Such a thing had never occurred. Press Conference by JudgesA lot of earth shattering revelations were made in the press conference. Justice Chelameswar, who did most of the talking at the presser, said that administration of justice was not in order and that "many things which are less than desirable have happened in the last three months".The judges handed over to media a letter written by them to the then CJI Dipak Misra, which, among other things, stated that "cases having far-reaching consequences for the nation and judiciary were selectively assigned to benches of preference without any rational basis".The unprecedented press conference was a harbinger for more dramatic events which were to unfold in the coming months. Loya case hearingThe hearing of the petitions seeking SIT investigation into the death of CBI Judge B H Loya was in the centre of the news during the first quarter of the year. It was widely speculated that the allocation of the Loya case to a relatively junior bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra was one of the triggering points for the judges' press conference. This was corroborated by Justice Gogoi's affirmative nod accompanied with a "yes" to a query by reporter as to whether the Loya case had any connection with the press conference. And, on January 12 - the day of press conference- Loya case was listed for admission before the bench of Justice Arun Mishra.Anyhow, matter was later considered by a different bench, which was headed by the then CJI. The hearing of the case witnessed charged exchanges between lawyers Dushyant Dave, Harish Salve, Mukul Rohatgi, Thushar Mehta and Pallav Sisodia. Dave, appearing for Bombay Lawyers Association,insisted that Salve cannot be permitted to appear for State of Maharashtra, as he had appeared for Rubabbuddin Sheikh( the brother of deceased Sohrabuddin Sheikh) and Amit Shah in different proceedings arising out of the same case. It was also alleged that there was conflict of interest on the part of Pallav Sisodia, the counsel for one of the petitioners, as he had appeared for Amit Shah in an earlier proceeding connected with Sohrabuddin-Tulisram encounter case. The heated arguments often resulted in unsavoury scenes, forcing the bench to intervene on more than one occasion to cool the tempers.On April 19, the SC ruled out any foul play in Loya's death and dismissed the petitions. The judgment was widely criticised by many in the legal field. Former judge Justice AP Shah termed the judgment "utterly wrong and jurisprudentially incorrect".Centre sending back Justice K M Joseph's recommendationA major controversy arose when the Centre sent back the recommendation of Justice K M Joseph on April 26.The Centre split up the collegium's recommendation to grant approval only to the appointment of Indu Malhotra.This unprecedented act of selectively withholding approval to one of the Collegium recommendees was widely criticised as an act of high-handedness, with some drawing parallels to the notorious executive interferences with judiciary during the regime of Indira Gandhi. It was widely perceived that Justice Joseph was being targeted for ruling against the Centre in 2016 by quashing the presidential rule in Uttarakhand.File Photo: Justice KM JosephLaw Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad cited reasons of lack of seniority and regional over-representation for seeking re-consideration of Justice Joseph's name. Several prominent SC lawyers moved a resolution condemning the Centre's action. Senior Advocate Indira Jaising moved a petition seeking to stay the warrant of appointment of Indu Malhotra on the ground that Centre cannot split up collegium recommendations. However, the prayer was turned down by the bench of CJI.Indu Malhotra, first woman lawyer to be directly appointed as SC judgeIndu Malhotra became the first woman advocate to be directly appointed as Supreme Court judge. Her name was jointly recommended along with Justice KM Joseph by the SC collegium in the first week of February. Master of RosterThe major grievance ventilated by the four senior judges in the press conference was regarding the "selective allocation of cases" by CJI using the powers of 'master of roster'.Following the press conference, the then CJI Dipak Misra introduced a subject wise roster system in the first week of Feburary 2018.In April, the bench headed by CJI dismissed a PIL by lawyer Asok Pande, which sought for...

Press Conference, Impeachment Motion & More : Major SC Events Of 2018

Manu Sebastian

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