It was business back to normal today in the first five courts presided by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and four senior judges who had publicly hurled accusations against the CJI on assignment of cases and other issues last week.
On the first working day after the unprecedented presser on Friday, speculations were rife in the apex court corridors as to how the four judges and the CJI would move forward in resolving the crisis and take up respective judicial work.
The press conference by Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph on January 12 was the single major controversy in the chequered 67-year old history of the Supreme Court.
The CJI's courtroom saw lawyers, litigants and scribes rushing in to witness the court proceedings which began around 10.35 AM, when lawyer R P Luthra mentioned the issue of the press conference by the judges and urged the CJI to take action.
Luthra's plea was strongly rejected with the CJI saying "no, no", when lawyer R P Luthra referred to the January 12 press conference held by four judges on the issue of assignment of cases and sought stern action in the matter.
The CJI, heading the bench which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, then went ahead with the mentioning of urgent cases and hearing of 56 listed matters.
Justice Chelameswar, who had led press conference, was in his cool self. He began presiding over court number 2 almost simultaneously and dealt with 60 cases listed for the day.
Justices Gogoi, Lokur and Joseph presided courts three, four and five respectively without showing any signs of discomfort.
The three judges dealt with 49, 41 and 53 matters listed today respectively.
Justice Lokur also chaired a special bench comprising Justices Joseph and A K Sikri at 2 PM, to deal with coal scam cases in which CBI informed that it would examine the bank accounts of those who had visited the official residence of then agency chief Ranjit Sinha.
Justice Gogoi had asserted earlier that the four judges have not "broken the ranks" and will "start doing things which we do" from today.
Attorney General K K Venugopal later told PTI that everything has been settled among the judges who were busy doing normal judicial work.
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