Supreme Court crisis still remains unsolved, says Attorney General KK Venugopal

Attorney General K K Venugopal on Tuesday said the crisis in the Supreme Court seems to be unresolved and hoped it will be “fully settled” in a couple of days, remarks that come a day after he stated that everything was settled in the higher judiciary.

A crisis erupted on January 12 after four senior judges – Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph — openly castigated the functioning of the top court headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

“Yes, I think it has not been settled. Let's hope things will be fully settled within 2-3 days,” Venugopal told PTI.

Asked about reports about the impasse continuing, Venugopal said he has to agree with the view.

On whether he had a meeting or spoke with any of the four judges or the CJI, Venugopal said, “Nothing of that sort has happened”.

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However, he hoped things will be sorted out in the next couple of days.

The four top Supreme Court judges had on Monday resumed work, belying the simmering tensions sparked by their accusations against the Chief Justice, while the Attorney General had described the unprecedented crisis as “a storm in a tea cup”.

In the presser, the four judges had flagged certain problems, including the assigning of cases in the apex court, and said there were certain issues afflicting the country’s highest court.

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had on Sunday met a seven-member delegation of the Bar Council of India and Supreme Court Bar Association President Vikas Singh and had assured them that the crisis would be sorted out soon and congeniality would prevail.