Former Supreme Court judge, Justice Kurian Joseph, on February 24 revealed that hectic meetings held among judges within the top court immediately after the January 2018 press conference even considered shifting the power of ‘master of roster’ (the authority to allocate cases among judges) from the sole custody of the Chief Justice of India to a three-judge committee.
The January 2018 press conference saw four senior-most judges of the top court, including Justice Joseph, publicly express their apprehensions about the listing of certain sensitive cases in the top court and the independence of the judiciary, considered a basic feature of the Constitution. Memories of the January 2018 press conference were rekindled recently when two senior lawyers, Dushyant Dave and Prashant Bhushan, separately wrote to Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and the Supreme Court Registry about “irregularities” in the listing of cases.
Justice Joseph (retd) said the meetings were held between the four judges and their colleagues, who were in line to be future Chief Justices of India, for at least two weeks following the press conference.
