New Delhi: The crisis in the Supreme Court over complaints against the chief justice seemed far from over despite optimism expressed a day earlier by top legal bodies, amid fresh hopes on Tuesday of a resolution by the weekend.
"I think it (crisis) has not been settled. Let's hope things will be fully settled within 2-3 days", Attorney General K K Venugopal said on Tuesday.
He had asserted on Monday that "everything has been settled" and described the crisis as a "storm in a teacup." The Bar Council of India had declared "kahani khatam (story is over)" in describing the crisis that erupted on Friday when four senior-most judges launched a virtual revolt against Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
At an unprecedented press conference, Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph openly castigated the functioning of the top court headed by Misra.
Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Vikas Singh on Tuesday said there was a likelihood of the crisis being resolved by the end of this week.
The Bar Council of India continued to maintain that there was "absolutely no crisis now".
BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra told said that a seven-member delegation on Monday met Justices Gogoi and Lokur, who both gave an assurance that there was no crisis at all.
In a related development, the four Supreme Court judges who publicly took on the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, have been kept out of a constitution bench that will decide on many important cases
The constitution bench has, besides the Chief Justice, Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan.
According to a roster put up on Monday, from January 17, these judges will decide on cases like the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, whether to remove a ban on homosexuality etc.
The apex court sources said Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Tuesday met the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court who had hurled several accusations against him including on the issue of allocation of PILs of sensitive nature.
The Chief Justice met the four judges - Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- for about 15 minutes before starting the usual work of the day. Some other judges were also present at the meeting, the sources said.
After the meeting, the CJI and the four judges went ahead with their listed business.