Supreme Court Refuses Urgent Hearing On Petition Against Ex-Chief Justice

A petition seeking urgent hearing on allegations against former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra in the light of Justice Kurian Joseph's remarks that he was under "external influence" while taking decisions was declined by the Supreme Court today.

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said the petition will come up for hearing in normal course.

"You have liberty to use PIL (Public Interest litigation), misuse it, or say anything you want. You have filed it. We will do whatever we want. The petition will come up in normal course," the Chief Justice said.

The lawyer said the "newspaper reports created doubts" in the minds of the people about "credibility of the institution," of Supreme Court as he referred to remarks made by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Kurian Joseph.

To this the Chief Justice of India said "credibility of the institution is maintained by individuals not by newspapers".

Justice Kurian Joseph, one of the four judges who held the unprecedented press conference in January to raise their concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court told NDTV on December 3 that they went public after being sure that then Chief Justice Dipak Misra was "under an external influence."

"We are sure that the Chief Justice was not taking decisions on his own. We found that there had been external influences on the Chief Justice of India," Justice Kurian Joseph, who retired from the top court last week said.

Justice J Chelameswar, who has since retired, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who is now the Chief Justice of India, Justice Mdadan Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph addressed a first of its kind ever press conference in the capital. They raised concerns about preferential allocation of sensitive cases by then Chief Justice.