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CJI Dipak Misra's impeachment: Ball in Venkaiah Naidu's court, rift in Congress widens

So far, no judge has been impeached in India.

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Seven Opposition parties, led by Congress, made an unprecedented move on Friday and submitted to Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu a notice to seek Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra's impeachment over a host of charges. The notice will become a motion only when Naidu takes it up. 

Now, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu as Rajya Sabha Chairman has to decide whether to quash the notice or let the process of impeachment go further. Going by the precedent in such cases, not admitting the notice will be unusual. The only time a notice for impeachment was rejected was in 1970. This happened as the then Chief Justice reached out to the speaker and convinced him that the issue was frivolous. 

So far, no judge has been impeached in India. If such a motion is admitted, a three-member committee of a senior Supreme Court judge, a High Court judge and a prominent jurist is formed to investigate the charges. If the committee agrees, then the matter is taken up for discussion in the House and must be passed by a special majority. The motion is then taken up in the next House where it needs to be passed by a two-thirds majority. When both Houses have passed it, the President is approached.

Impeachment is a long-drawn process that is unlikely to be completed in six months — the span of CJI Misra's remaining tenure. A senior Congress leader said the notice will symbolise a moment and serve as a warning to future top judges to use their authority judiciously.

Also, it is not possible for the Opposition to muster the two-thirds majority required in both Houses to push through the motion.

In the last case, Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court had tendered his resignation in 2011 after the Rajya Sabha passed 
the motion to impeach him. Justice V Ramaswami was the first judge against whom impeachment proceedings were initiated in 1993. These were cases that involved allegations of financial impropriety and extravagance.

In the present move, 71 Rajya Sabha MPs have signed the notice. For impeachment motion to be moved in the Rajya Sabha, only 50 such signatures are needed. 

Earlier on Friday, at a press conference, Congress leaders said the parties had to move the notice with a "very heavy heart" because 

CJI Misra has not "asserted the independence of judiciary in the face of interference by the executive".

The MPs who signed the notice are from Congress, NCP, CPI(M), CPI, Samajwadi Party, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and NSP. There has been a clear division within Congress itself on the issue.


The dissent against the move seems to be widening as two senior Congress leaders and former Law Ministers have expressed their 
reservations to The Indian Express.

Congress leader and former Union Minister Ashwani Kumar opposed his party's decision of moving an impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and said that the move could have been avoided.

He added that if he would have been a Member of Parliament and had been given the paper to sign, he would not have done it.

"I would not like to get into the merits of the controversy, I am on a larger principle and the larger principle is that impeachment is the extreme remedy and that to against the chief justice, which is an unprecedented move," Kumar said.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not sign the petition. 

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh too were not signatories to the move. 

According to reports, lawyer-politician Abhishek Singhvi was the last MP to sign last Sunday after some prodding from the Congress high command. 

(With ANI inputs)

 

 

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