Rajya Sabha chairman says MPs who moved impeachment notice against Chief Justice Dipak Misra were “unsure of their own case”, Opposition slams move
In an expected, albeit controversial, move, Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu, on Monday (April 23), rejected the impeachment notice moved by a section of Opposition MPs that sought to initiate proceedings for the removal of Chief Justice Dipak Misra under provisions of Article 124 (4) of the Constitution.
The Congress party, which had spearheaded the Opposition’s move for the Chief Justice’s removal, has now indicated that it would move the Supreme Court in challenge against the Rajya Sabha chairman’s decision.
Congress leader and senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was among the Opposition leaders who drafted the notice seeking Chief Justice Misra’s removal, said after Naidu’s decision: “We’ll certainly file a petition (in Supreme Court) against this and would want the CJI to not take any decision with respect to it, be it the listing or anything else, we’ll accept whatever SC decides.”
Sibal had, following last week’s verdict by a bench headed by the Chief Justice which refused to order an investigation into the mysterious death of CBI judge BH Loya, publicly declared that he would not appear in any case being heard in the court of Chief Justice Dipak Misra till he demits office in October.
Curiously, any move by the Congress or other Opposition leaders to file a petition in the apex court challenging Naidu’s order is expected to end in the Chief Justice, in his capacity as the master of roster, deciding on the composition of the bench that would hear such a plea. However, the Congress is hoping that its petition would be heard by a bench comprising the three senior-most judges of the apex court after the Chief Justice. This adds another intriguing twist to the tale, as these three judges would be Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan B Lokur – the three judges, who along with Justice Kurien Joseph, had held the unprecedented press conference earlier this year in which they had slammed the Chief Justice over his decision to allocate crucial cases to benches headed by ‘junior judges’.
The Congress, along with MPs from other Opposition parties like the CPI, CPI (M), NCP, SP, BSP and the IUML, had, in their notice for the removal of the Chief Justice alleged that there was “prima facie evidence suggesting that Chief Justice Dipak Misra may have been involved in the conspiracy of paying illegal gratification in the (Prasad Education Trust) case which at least warrants a thorough investigation.” The notice was handed over to Naidu on Friday.
However, in a swift decision, which Rajya Sabha sources claimed was intended to avoid an “uncomfortable situation” for the head of the country’s apex judicial body, Naidu rejected the notice on Monday morning, apparently after consultations with Attorney-General KK Venugopal, retired Supreme Court judge Sudarshan Reddy, former Secretary-General of the Lok Sabha Subhash Kashyap, the former Law Secretary P.K. Malhotra, the former Legislative Secretary of the Rajya Sabha Sanjay Singh and senior officials of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. These discussions are said to have taken place through the weekend.
In the final order rejecting the notice that was signed by Naidu on Monday morning, the Rajya Sabha Chairman has held that the MPs who moved the notice “were unsure of their own case.”
With Naidu rejecting the notice for the CJI’s removal and a belligerent Congress insisting on a judicial challenge of the move in the apex court, the ruling BJP has sought to hit out at its principal political rival by asserting that the Grand Old Party was out to “disrupt institutions of democracy”.
BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi told reporters following Sibal’s press conference: “Congress party has a long history of disrupting institutions of democracy. The rule of law cannot be confused with the rule of dynasty.” Several other senior BJP leaders reiterated Lekhi’s assertions while adding that the Congress, and other Opposition parties, was trying to derail constitutional processes and institutions for their personal political gains.
The legal community too appeared to endorse the Rajya Sabha chairman’s decision.
Senior jurist Fali Nariman told The Indian Express (IE) it was ‘a horribly black day in the history of the Supreme Court’, adding that the impeachment move not only diminishes the public’s faith in the judiciary, but could well open the door for the ruling party to move against a judge if it doesn’t like a particular judgment.
Nariman said the Rajya Sabha chairman was right in deciding against admitting the notice given by the Congress-led Opposition. Echoing Nariman’s views, former chief justice of India, KG Balakrishnan pointed out that charges of misbehaviour made out by the Opposition MPs against Chief Justice Dipak Misra were not enough to seek removal of a judge and that the lawmakers should have “proved misbehaviour” if they had hoped for having their notice accepted by the Rajya Sabha chairman.
Former Attorney General, Soli Sorabjee welcomed Naidu’s decision to reject the notice against Chief Justice Dipak Misra, saying the Rajya Sabha Chairman has “rightly applied his mind”. News agency PTI quoted Sorabjee as saying: “He (Naidu) has gone into the matter and has found no merit and no ground for impeachment, therefore, he rejected it. I don’t see chances of the writ petition (challenging the VP’s decision) succeeding.”