India, Aug. 8 -- The Supreme Court on Friday rolled back its extraordinary August 4 directive that had barred an Allahabad high court judge from hearing any criminal cases for the remainder of his tenure and ordered him to sit with a senior colleague to "learn the nuances of law."

A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said it was acting on a letter from Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai requesting reconsideration of the contentious directions. As reported first by HT on Thursday, the CJI's intervention followed concerns within judicial circles that the top court may have overreached by issuing what effectively amounted to an administrative directive to a high court.

"We have received an undated letter from the CJI,...