The four Supreme Court judges who on Friday went public with charges against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, told the media that they had expressed reservations about a case pertaining to the death of CBI judge BH Loya being assigned to a particular Bench.

But the CJI had refused to budge. They had then informed the Chief Justice about their intention to go public, they said.

Though Justice Jasti Chelameswar, who addressed the media on behalf of the other apex court judges, did not name the Loya petition specifically, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who is scheduled to take over as CJI after Chief Justice Misra retires on October 2, spoke up to say the petition is indeed regarding Loya’s death.

“It is the discharge of our debt to the nation that brought us here. We have discharged our debt to the nation by saying what is what,” Justice Gogoi said firmly.

The revelation at the press conference comes a couple of hours after a Bench led by Justice Arun Mishra heard the Loya petition.

Without naming anyone, Justice Chelameswar said that several other important cases like this had been assigned to preferred Benches over the past months. The convention of the court demands that important cases of public interest or sensitive matters should be first heard by the CJI. If the CJI is not willing for some reason to hear the case, then it should be assigned to the next senior-most judge in the Supreme Court. Instead of that, such cases have been assigned to certain Benches and eventually destined to a quiet burial.

“Unless the institution is preserved and allowed to maintain its dignity, democracy will not survive. The hall mark of a good democracy are independent and impartial judges,” Justice Chelameswar said.

When asked whether the CJI should be impeached, Justice Chelameswar said: “Let the nation decide.”

The four judges denied they were breaking ranks by holding the press conference, and said they were only discharging their responsibility to the nation. “Tomorrow is Saturday, then it is Sunday, and on Monday we go back to do our job,” Justice Chelameswar said.

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