Senior Supreme Court judge Justice Chelameswar has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India requesting him to convene a full court to address the problem of Executive interference in the functioning of the country’s judiciary.
Chelameswar, who is the senior-most Supreme Court judge after Chief Justice Dipak Misra, has complained of the “bonhomie between the judiciary and the government” that is being seen in certain States, which, in turn, “sounds the death knell to democracy.”
The judge made these remarks in reference to a recent incident in which the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, Dinesh Maheshwari, ordered an inquiry against District and Sessions Judge Krishna Bhat at the insistence of the Union Law Ministry, despite the Supreme Court’s Collegium recommending his name for elevation twice. According to him, this was a serious indication of the Executive encroaching into the judiciary’s functioning.
Copies of this six-page letter have also been sent to all other 22 Supreme Court judges. It says, “Somebody from Bangalore has already beaten us in the race to the bottom. The Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court is more than willing to do the Executive bidding, behind our back.”
Taking note of that incident, Chelameswar stated that he cannot recollect any past incident in which the Executive has bypassed the Supreme Court in this manner, more particularly so for the purpose of probing into allegations against a judge, despite them already having been rejected by the Collegium twice.
Justice Chelameswar, who had led an unprecedented attack against Chief Justice Misra by holding a press conference along with three other senior judges, will demit his office upon retirement in June this year.
He has made remarks about appointment of judges in the past as well, but back then he had attacked the Collegium for not being transparent. He is also the only judge who had written a dissenting opinion in a Supreme Court judgement that had struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission for being unconstitutional.