 Welcome to NewsClick. We have with us senior advocate Prashan Bhushan who is going to talk to us about the recent developments in Supreme Court which has been unprecedented in the history of Indian judiciary. Welcome to NewsClicks. So, what is this issue that what was the reason for the four senior most judges of the Supreme Court to come out in open and give a press conference? Could you give us some background? Yes, you see firstly the press conference by four senior judges against a Chief Justice against the sitting Chief Justice is truly unprecedented and unheard of. Now the issue that they have raised in that press conference is regarding the manner in which the Chief Justice is misusing and abusing his power as master of roster in allocating cases to different benches. What they said was that they raised this issue with him two months ago and it was not redressed. They raised it with him again and again orally. It was still not redressed. Finally, the last straw came when this Justice Loya's case was listed by the Chief Justice before court number 10 which is a very politically sensitive case. It should have been normally allocated to among the senior judges etc. So, the issue that they raised was that though the Chief Justice is the master of roster for the purpose of deciding how benches are to be allocated, which cases go to which benches etc. This does not mean that this power can be arbitrarily used or used in a malefidy manner particularly in politically sensitive cases. There has to be a method, a transparent non-arbitrary and rational method for allocating cases. Unfortunately, that is not what is happening and the judges went public with this matter only when they felt that the matter is not being redressed. It has become so serious that effectively the water had come above their nose. These are very respected and senior judges and very, very sober as well as responsible judges. For them to have raised this issue in this way is clearly something which shows that the matters had become very serious. So, also that there is an issue of the future cases that are going to come especially the Babrimas and the demolition case and other significant political cases. Do you think that was the back of the mind when the judges were apprehensive because they say that democracy is in danger? That is one of the words they have used. Yes, because you see these politically sensitive cases can have a great impact on the functioning of our democracy, on fundamental rights of citizens, on the future of our republic. And some of these cases involve, for example, Judge Loya's case involves the suspected murder of a sitting judge who was dealing with this murder trial of Mr. Amit Shah. Now, for that matter to be dealt with in an arbitrary or malefied manner or such cases being dealt with in this manner can certainly lead to a great danger to our democracy. Then what may be the implications for the judiciary if there are issues not being settled in the judiciary? What do you think might be the implication? So, it shows that the Chief Justice is really subverting justice in politically sensitive cases in this manner by allocating politically sensitive cases to particular benches, etc. And therefore, this is the matter which the court judges have highlighted. This matter needs to be immediately addressed and redressed and a transparent and rational method must be put in place for the allocation of cases. It cannot be that individual politically sensitive cases are directed to be listed before particular benches chosen by the Chief Justice, especially in a situation where a case involving the Chief Justice himself, that is the medical college scam where the CBI is investigating or should be investigating the Chief Justice's role also in a scam where the medical college was trying to bribe its way into obtaining a favorable judgment from the Supreme Court, where such a case is being investigated by the CBI which can be used to potentially blackmail the Chief Justice. This issue becomes even more important and the manner in which the Chief Justice dealt with that very case itself is scandalous where he was told that he has a conflict of interest in this matter. He can't deal with this case yet he dealt with this case, not only dealt with this case on the judicial side but dealt with it on the administrative side as well by pulling out the case from the five senior judges to whom it had been sent by Justice Chalmeshwar and handing it to three very junior judges who gave it a judicial burial. Sir, for long you have been asking for accountability in the judiciary and for transparency. So what would be your suggestions for actually bringing out more transparency in the higher judiciary? So one of the things which needs to be settled immediately is this very issue of how the Chief Justice allocates cases etc. This needs to be immediately settled but apart from that the whole functioning of the judiciary for example today there is hardly any information being made available about the judiciary under the RTI. That needs to be made available. The method of selection of judges needs to be made more transparent, more rational etc. There needs to be some criteria put in place for selecting judges. There needs to be a method for selecting people on that criteria. The names of shortlisted judges need to be put out before the public. All these are measures of transparency which have to be adopted. But do you think there will be a compromise because the reports say that usually on Monday the senior most judges meet the CJI, usually customary meeting. Do you think they will come to some consensus on this issue? I don't know. It seems a little doubtful given the history of this case because for two months this has been going on. And the Chief Justice has not listened to reason or not listened to what the senior judges were telling him. And the things were getting from bad to worse. Whether the Chief Justice will now see reason and correct himself etc. remains to be seen. Let us hope that that happens but that may not be the end of the problems because we have seen very egregious cases of misconduct quite apart from his method of allocating of benches etc. which will soon have to be dealt with.