A day after four senior-most Supreme Court judges alleged selective and irrational allocation of cases for hearing in the court, Justice Kurian Joseph, one of them, exuded confidence that the issue would have got resolved already.
“It was for institutional introspection and correction and I hope the issue [pertaining to allocation of cases] has already been addressed,” he told presspersons here on Saturday.
Justice Joseph said it was the prerogative of the Chief Justice of India to assign cases to judges. “He needn’t consult anyone, but there is a set procedure, convention and practice to carry out that responsibility. I believe these would be honoured from now on.”
The judge maintained that there was nothing personal in the unprecedented gesture of senior justices going public with their concern about judiciary; nor did it smack of indiscipline.
“It was born from our commitment to the institution and we wanted to bring these issues to the people’s notice. That has been achieved to good effect,” he said.
Asked if there was a need for external intervention to defuse the judicial crisis, he said it was an internal issue and action had been taken from within the institution to address it. “There’s no need for any external intervention”. To another question, he said the issue had been taken up earlier, but there was no solution forthcoming, which forced them to go public. “Those who should take note of it have done so. Hence the belief that such [unsavoury] things will not happen in future.”
