Supreme Court Overturns Own Order Saying Chief Justice Is The ‘Master Of The Court’

A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court today overturned an order of a two-judge bench allocating the matter of alleged bribes taken in the name of judges. It set up a larger bench, saying the Chief Justice of India was the “master of the court” and had the sole prerogative to allocate matters.

The five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which assembled urgently at 3 p.m., said neither a two-judge, nor a three-judge bench can direct the CJI to constitute a specific bench.

Also comprising Justices RK Agrawal, Arun Mishra, Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, the bench annulled yesterday’s order of Justices J Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer directing the constitution of a bench of the five senior-most judges of the apex court to hear the matter.

It said the allocation of matters by the CJI was the principle of law, judicial discipline and the decorum of the court. The CJI also refused to gag the media from reporting the case, saying “I believe in Freedom of Speech, Expression and the Press.”

The CJI told advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for NGO 'Campaign for Judicial Accountability', and advocate Kamini Jaiswal, that Bhushan levelled “wild allegations” against him (Justice Misra) in a matter in which the CBI had lodged a corruption case. The bench made it clear that the matter will be allocated to an appropriate bench for hearing after two weeks.

Bhushan stormed out of the packed courtroom, saying he was not being allowed to speak in the matter.

Earlier in the day, the matter was listed before a bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, which referred it to the five-judge bench as ordered yesterday by the bench headed by Justice Chelameswar.

Watch this conversation with Supreme Court Advocate Vikram Hegde who was present at the hearing.