As SC benches fight turf battles, precedents and conventions suffer

In order to understand the latest controversy, we need to explain the sequence of events, and the issues involved

On Thursday, two benches of the Supreme Court, one presided by Justice Arun Mishra and another by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, requested the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to consider, whether a larger bench has to decide the correctness of the decision rendered by a three-judge bench on Wednesday, February 21, in a land acquisition matter.

Their reference to the CJI has plunged the apex court into a fresh controversy involving their due adherence to precedents and conventions, even as the court is struggling to recover from the aftermath of the January 12 press conference of the four senior-most