There is a convention in Supreme Court. The judge who is retiring, sits with Chief Justice of India on his last working day before reitrement.
On friday normally 2 Judges sit in Court of Chief Justice.
Yesterday, there were 5 judges sitting in Chief Justice Court.
Because yesterday was last working day for 3 Judges who were retirng. As per convention, they too sat with Chief Justice. Thus there were 5 Judges hearing small cases in First Court.
If a case is dismissed and if a party wants to file a review petition, probably his review petition will go before 5 Judges.
If after dismissal of review petition, if he wants to file Curative Petition, his Curative petition ought to go before 11 Judges....
As per my memory of last 20 years in Supreme Court, this was an unprecedented day.
Haresh Raichura
10/05/2014