To Resolve Rift In Judiciary, Bar Council To Meet Judges Today

New Delhi: Two top organisations of the legal fraternity jumped into damage control mode on Saturday to resolve the unprecedented crisis following a rift within the judiciary. Both emphasised on the need to resolve the matter internally. While the Bar Council, the regulatory body for lawyers, said it would depute a seven-member team to meet all the judges individually, starting today, the Supreme Court Bar Association, a representative body of the top court's lawyers, said there was a need to "restore the credibility" of the Supreme Court.

The press conference called on Friday by four of the Supreme Court's senior-most judges to criticise the Chief Justice of India has earned the stiff disapproval of the Bar Council, which said it has "shaken up the system" and the matter should be resolved "peacefully and quickly".

"We just don't want the dirty linen to be washed in public... Going to the cameras will weaken our system," Manan Kumar Mishra, chairman of the Bar Council of India told NDTV.

The Council's seven-member team will meet Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra this evening; it will meet other judges of the Supreme Court through the day.

At least half of the judges have agreed to a discussion, Mr Mishra had earlier said.

On Friday, four judges of the top court had met the media at the house of Justice J Chelameswar. Things were "not in order", they said, with what they described as "the administration of the Supreme Court" and expressed concerns about the assignment of sensitive cases, which is done by the Chief Justice of India. Asked if they believed the Chief Justice should be impeached, they said, "Let the nation decide."

The Supreme Court Bar Association, a representative body of Supreme Court lawyers, also held an emergency meeting on Saturday evening, during which they adopted two resolutions, one of which was to "restore the credibility" of the Supreme Court.

For this, "a system must be developed to ensure PIL doesn't go beyond the first five courts," said Vikas Singh, the president of the Bar Association. The Supreme Court Bar Association also wants even pending PILs to be allotted to five senior judges.

Agreeing with the Bar Council that the matter should be resolved internally, the association said the Chief Justice of India "should call a full court meeting of all judges and solve this issue".