Supreme Court judges' press conference: Other judges' and lawyers' reactions

* BJP MP Subramanian Swamy: We can't criticize them, they are men of great integrity and have sacrificed a lot of their legal career, where they could've made money as senior counsels. We must respect them. The PM must ensure that the 4 judges and the CJI, in fact, the whole SC come to one opinion and proceed further.

* PB Sawant, former Supreme Court judge: Judges had to come before media & take this unprecedented step. This means that there is a serious dispute, either with CJI or some internal dispute.

Full text: 4 senior SC judges' letter to CJI

* Indira Jaising, Supreme Court

advocate

: I think it's a historic Press Conference. It was very well done. I think we, the people of India, have a right to know what is going on within the

judiciary

and I welcome this.

* Salman Khurshid, senior advocate and Congress leader: Deeply sad and pained, also feel a sense of agony that the highest court of the land should come under such severe stress that forces judges to address the media.

* Justice R.S. Sodhi: Issues don't matter. It is their complaint on administrative matter. They are only 4, there are 23 others. 4 get together and show the Chief Justice in a poor light. It is immature and childish behaviour. I think all 4 judges should be impeached, they have no business to sit there and deliver verdicts anymore.

Also read: What the rift in SC is about

* Prashant Bhushan, lawyer and politician: It is certainly a very serious development which has cast a huge shadow on the Chief Justice. Somebody had to confront the situation, where CJI is blatantly misusing his powers, hence the unprecedented step (by the 4 judges).

* Ujjwal Nikam, senior lawyer: This is a black day for the judiciary. Today's press conference would cause a bad precedent. From now on every common man could look at all judicial order with suspicion. Every judgement will be questioned.

*Mukul Mudgal, retired high court judge: There must be some serious reason that they were left with no other option but to hold a press conference. But what connection does Loya have with this? I know nothing about this and I don't want to make comments about any political matter

*Senior lawyer KTS Tulsi: I am sure they (four judges) have exhausted all other remedies. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking. The whole matter is with respect to judicial propriety. The question is of natural justice. Whatever is the law for common man, it is applied much more rigorously as far as judges are concerned because they must always be above suspicion

*AK Ganguly, retired judge: (I) Feel very disturbed over the issue. This should not have happened, but it has and there might be strong reasons for them. Consequence would be it would create apprehensions in the minds of the people

(With inputs from agencies)