Impeachment is an extreme remedy, says ex-Law minister

Even as Congress leader and former Union Minister Ashwani Kumar opposed his party's decision of moving an impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, the party spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala reminded Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that he had argued for the impeachment of Justice (Soumitra) Sen. In a tweet, Surjewala said Jaitley had called the SC decision quashing the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act as 'tyranny of the unelected', it is valid opinion."

After two former ministers P. Chidambaram and Salman Khursheed came out against the impeachment move, another Congress leader Kumar (who is also a former law minister) said that impeachment was an extreme remedy. He argued that it could have been avoided. Additional Solicitor General Satya Pal Jain said the allegations levelled against Misra, do not amount to and were not even remotely akin to anything called misconduct or misbehaviour.

He added that the recent act of submitting a notice of the so-called impeachment motion completed the circle of the Congress Party having lost faith in the functioning of the Indian Parliamentary democracy. "First, they attacked the executive by attempting to malign the Prime Minister and his colleagues, thereafter they did not allow the Parliament, that is, the Legislature, to function even for a day and now with their latest move, they were trying to intimidate the judiciary also," he said.

Meanwhile, sources here said that the Chief Justice was not recusing himself from any hearing. As many as 40 cases are listed before his Bench for hearing on Monday.