After revolt by top judges, CJI to address media

NEW DELHI: The observations made by Supreme Court judges are extremely disturbing and have far-reaching consequences, claimed Congress president Rahul Gandhi and spokesperson RS Surjewala during a press conference on Friday.

In an unprecedented move, four senior Supreme Court judges on Friday called a press conference to express their displeasure with the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Mishra and with the way he was assigning cases.

The judges blew the lid off a growing rift with Chief Justice Dipak Misra at a news conference, the first of its kind ever held by sitting judges of India's top court. 

Chelameswar, speaking beside his colleagues, Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph, said they did not want to be accused of not having spoken up for the institution, or of "selling their souls". 

Efforts to alert the Chief Justice that certain things were not in order and that remedial measures needed to be taken had failed, prompting the news conference, Chelameswar said.

Here are the latest updates:

12 January 2018

14:41 IST

PM Narendra Modi speaks to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad over allegations made by the four Supreme Court judges

14:41 IST

Judges' press conference: Congress says democracy is in danger

"We are very concerned to hear 4 judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court. #DemocracyInDanger," tweets official handle of Congress 

We are very concerned to hear 4 judges of the Supreme Court expressed concerns about the functioning of the Supreme Court. #DemocracyInDanger

— Congress (@INCIndia) January 12, 2018