INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
As India's top judiciary once again found itself in the middle of a controversy with opposition parties launching an unprecedented bid to
impeach Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Friday, a former senior judge voiced his reservations about the recent turmoil
Speaking on The TheIndianSubcontinent Dialogues, Justice AP Shah, the former Delhi High Court Chief Justice and ex-chief of the Law
Commission, said it would be the "blackest day" for Indian judiciary if Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who is tipped to be the Supreme Court Chief
Justice after Justice Misra retires in October, is not elevated."If this doesn't happen, if the appointment does not go through, I would say
that would be the blackest day for the judiciary of India
Justice Gogoi is one of our finest judges
He has come out openly on principle
It is true that an outgoing judge recommends the new CJI (Chief Justice of India) that's the reality
But I am sure that the wiser counsel will prevail and there would not be such adventure," he said.Justice Gogoi was one of the four
senior-most judges of the Supreme Court who criticised Chief Justice Misra's distribution of cases and raised an alarm about judicial
appointments in an extraordinary press conference in January.Justice Shah, however, dismissed the opposition's impeachment move as "purely
political"."It is a purely political issue
I'm not sure of the purpose for this impeachment
The opposition doesn't have the numbers
There is a possibility that the Speaker may or may not accept the motion
Then the matter will have to be taken to Supreme Court and in that process the Chief Justice would retire by that time."Justice Misra was
appointed in August last year and is due to retire in October, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 65.But Justice Shah had
strong words on a recent judgement by a Chief Justice-led bench on his powers to assign cases
"You keep the senior judges out, you select few and then you tell the people that 'sorry the Chief Justice is an institution, the Chief
Justice's decision cannot be questioned'
If your own colleagues are not convinced about the manner in which the work is allocated, then how will the people be convinced about the
working of the system"About delay in the appointment of Justice KM Joseph from the Uttarakhand High Court to the Supreme Court, he said, "I
personally feel that the executive sends messages saying that if you decide against the government, there might be some consequences
I am really concerned with that
In all fairness, the collegium should have acted
The Chief Justice should have acted on this."Asked about yesterday's verdict in the Judge BH Loya case in which Justice Misra headed a
three-judge bench of the Supreme Court to dismiss petitions calling for an investigation into the death of the lower court judge in 2014
when he was presiding over a case against BJP Chief Amit Shah, Justice Shah said he wished verdict had been "different"."I have one
important issue - can you say that with this verdict, the prestige and majesty of the court is enhanced Or doubts about Loya's death will
still persist I mean, I wish that the inquiry from a retired judge would have been an alternate course.(The TheIndianSubcontinent Dialogues
with Justice AP Shah airs at 9:30 pm on Sunday, April 22 on TheIndianSubcontinent 24X7)
