Supreme Court lawyers & litigants taken by surprise

New Delhi: Nothing seemed amiss when the Supreme Court started work at 10.30 am. as always. Judges strode out of their chambers, lawyers fussed through the papers, litigants hung around and reporters took their assigned seats in court rooms.

But a brewing judicial firestorm, invisible to all except four judges, erupted an hour later, taking the nation by surprise and plunging the judiciary into an unprecedented crisis whose reverberations will continue to ring for years to come.

Around 11.30 am., Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice Kurian Joseph rose for the day in their respective court rooms, numbered 2 and 5.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi, in the meantime, rushed through and disposed of most of the day’s listed business, while Justice Madan B. Lokur heard matters in his chamber.

All four of them left the Supreme Court premises within minutes and gathered at the 4, Tughlaq Road Bungalow in Lutyen’s Delhi, the official residence of Justice Chelameswar to hold an unscheduled press conference — no Supreme Court judge had ever addressed the media publicly.

The news of their sudden exit spread like wildfire in the corridors of the apex court, sending a shockwave among the journalists, lawyers and litigants and leading the scribes to scramble to the venue of the presser, about four kilometres away. It was an unprecedented life-time event, being the first such in the history of independent India. At the venue, media stalwarts and lawyers jostled for space alongside journalists, as Justice Chelameswar’s residence buzzed with activity and its gates, which are often closed, were open for all.

Veteran journalists like Shekhar Gupta and senior advocate Indira Jaising, who had served as Additional Solicitor General during the UPA regime, were among those who reached well before the commencement of the presser.