CJ Impeachment: Indian vice president rejects bid
India's Vice President and Chairman of the upper House of parliament M Venkaiah Naidu yesterday dismissed the notice of motion submitted by seven opposition parties led by Congress for impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Dipak Misra saying “there is virtually no concrete verifiable imputation.”
This was the first time that a notice for impeachment motion was filed against the Chief Justice of India.
Naidu, who chairs the Rajya Sabha, held extensive consultations with top legal and constitutional experts, including former chief justices and judges, before rejecting the notice submitted to him by a delegation of opposition parties last Friday. The opposition parties had sought impeachment of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) on five grounds of "misbehaviour".
The Indian Constitution says the Chief Justice of India can be impeached only on grounds of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.
Naidu said in his ten-page order that he had detailed personal conversations on all the aspects arising out of the notice and considered each of the allegations made in it individually as well as collectively.
"Based on all this, I have come to the conclusion that this motion does not deserve to be admitted...On careful analysis and reflection, I find there is virtually no concrete verifiable imputation. We cannot allow any of our pillars of governance to be weakened by any thought, word or action," he said.
Naidu said “all facts as stated in the motion don't make out a case which can lead any reasonable mind to conclude that Chief Justice on these facts can be ever held guilty of misbehaviour."
"I have considered the material contained in the notice of motion and reflected upon the inputs received during my interaction with legal luminaries and constitutional experts and I am of the firm opinion that the notice of motion does not deserve to be admitted. I refuse to admit the notice of motion," he said.
The Rajya Sabha chairman said that after having perused annexures to the motion, detailed consultations and studied opinions of constitutional experts, he was "satisfied that admission of this notice of motion is neither desirable nor proper".
Rejecting the notice, Naidu pointed to a press conference held by Congress on the issue and held it as “in breach of parliamentary customs and conventions and also in violation of Rajya Sabha norms.”
"I am constrained to observe that in the matter, the well established parliamentary customs and conventions have been delineated and the paragraph 2.2 of the handbook of the Rajya Sabha members have been disregarded. This provision prohibits publicity of any notice submitted by a member till it is been admitted by the chairman and circulated to the members. In the instant case, immediately after submitting the notice to me on 20th April, 2018, members addressed a press conference and shared the statements contained in the notice which included some still unsubstantiated charges against the Chief Justice of India (CJI).
“This act of members discussing the act of the CJI in the press is against propriety and parliamentary decorum as it denigrates the institution of the CJI. I am also aware that there has been a spate of statements in the press that seem to vitiate the atmosphere. I thought, I should, therefore, expedite my decision and end needless speculation," said Naidu.
Now, Rahul Gandhi-led Congress is likely to move the Supreme Court against the order of the Rajya Sabha chairman in the matter, party sources said.
Leaders of the opposition parties had on Friday met Naidu and handed over the motion of impeachment against the CJI bearing the signatures of 64 members of Rajya Sabha and seven members who retired recently.
The opposition parties listed five grounds which, the Congress said, amounts to “misbehaviour” on the part of the Chief Justice of India. These included the allocating sensitive cases to certain judges, an issue which was raised publicly at an unprecedented press conference by four senior judges of the apex court on January 12.
The four judges had accused the Chief Justice of India of abusing his position as "master of the roster" in allocating sensitive cases.
The trigger for their press conference was the death of judge B H Loya who was handling a case relating to the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, an alleged gangster, in an encounter with police in Gujarat in 2005.
BJP President Amit Shah, a key aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was an accused in the case but was later discharged. Modi was chief minister of Gujarat when the encounter had taken place. Modi became the PM in May, 2014.