New Delhi, Jan 12 (Deccan Chronicle): The country was taken by storm on Friday as four top Supreme Court judges virtually rebelled against the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra, at a press meet after he brushed aside their grievance with the judicial system.

Lawyer and senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, and former Supreme Court judges were quick to react to the 'virtual rebellion' by the four top judges of the apex court.

"We can't criticise 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. PM must ensure that the 4 judges and CJI, in fact whole SC come to one opinion & proceed further," Swamy said.

Not all reactions, however, were quite so welcoming.

Retired SC judge, Justice RS Sodhi said, "I think all 4 judges should be impeached, they have no business to sit there and deliver verdicts anymore. This trade unionism is wrong. Democracy in danger is not for them to say, we have parliament, courts, police functioning."

While another former apex court judge PB Sawant, spoke in favour of the judges, saying, "they had to come before media and take this unprecedented step. This means that there is a serious dispute, either with Chief Justice of India (CJI) or some internal dispute."

Former Supreme Court judge, Mukul Mudgal also spoke along the same lines as PB Sawant. "There must be some serious reason that they were left with no other option but to hold a Press Conference. But what connection Loya has with this? I know nothing about this & I don't want to make comments about any political matter," Mudgal said.

The same support also rang true in lawyer and politician Prashant Bhushan's words, who said, "It is certainly a very serious development which has cast a huge shadow on the Chief Justice. Somebody had to confront the situation, where CJ is blatantly misusing his powers, hence the unprecedented step."

Other Supreme Court advocates also reacted to the press meet which is being called the first of its kind in the country.

Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid expressed sadness and pain, along with "a sense of agony that highest court of land should come under such severe stress that forces judges to address the media."

Senior Lawyer Ujjwal Nikam's reaction was fraught with worry for the future of India's judiciary. "This is a black day for 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," Nikam said.

Supreme Court advocate KT Tulsi said, "It's quite shocking. There must have been compelling reasons for the senior-most judges to have adopted this course of action. One could see pain on their faces while they were speaking."

Indira Jaising, Supreme Court Advocate and head of NGO Lawyer's Collective, however, saw this move as historic. She welcomed the gesture and said it was extremely well done as the people of India have a right to know what is going on within the judiciary.