Seeing the current situation of the Supreme Court, it is feared that its status will be similar to that of India’s legislature and executive. At present, everything is not going well in the country’s highest court and gradually, the situation of chaos has started to emerge. If disorder spreads in the highest court of the country, then what can be the future of the democratic governance system?
Sitaram Yechury, the general secretary of CPI(M), announced on January 23, 2018, a few days before the session of Parliament, that the other opposition parties are about to bring the impeachment motion against India’s Chief Justice, Dipak Misra.
But after this, there was nothing special in this direction, so everyone assumed that this proposal had not been taken seriously by opposition parties. But now, suddenly the exchange of views has started between opposition parties and the Congress is informally taking part in this process with enthusiasm. Officially, the Congress has not yet clarified its stand, but the news is that the Left parties, especially CPI(M), have prepared a draft of the impeachment motion and distributed it among the leaders and MPs of various opposition parties. The Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP’s) MP and senior lawyer Majid Memon and CPI leader D Raja, along with several Congress MPs, have also signed it.
It is a very serious matter to try impeaching Chief Justice of the SC. It is a long process and has no guarantee that it will reach its culmination. Firstly, 100 members of the Lok Sabha or 50 members of the Rajya Sabha will have to sign the impeachment motion and hand it over to the presiding officer of the Lok Sabha or the Speaker of the Rajya Sabha. After that, the presiding officer of the House will decide whether to accept the proposal or not. If accepted, a 3-member committee will be formed to investigate the allegations of the report, which will be debated in Parliament. It can be accepted only by a two-thirds majority of the members present in the House.
In the history of independent India, no judge of the SC has been removed through impeachment, despite several attempts. This attempt was also unsuccessful in the case of Justice Ramaswamy.
Actually, this whole process is political in a sense. This allegation is against Justice Deepak Mishra, and it was summoned by four of the SC’s senior-most judges on January 12, to form an arbitrary bench instead of adhering to established traditions for the hearing of important matters. The intent of this allegation is that the purpose of his style of functioning benefits the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The case investigating the death of Judge Loya in questionable circumstances, whose wire joins BJP president Amit Shah, is an example in this regard. The second case relates to the recognition of the medical colleges in which Chief Justice Misra’s name has come up. It is obvious that these allegations will be made in the impeachment motion, as no effective action has been taken so far to remove the complaints of the four senior judges of the Bench.
But political observers say that even the active judge of the Supreme Court hearing the Babri Masjid case can be an important reason behind the impeachment motion. The matter has been pending for decades and the BJP wants that a decision be taken before the next Lok Sabha election so that once again, the political benefits can be availed by provoking religious sentiments.
In the last four years, after making promises to accelerate development and to create better opportunities for employment, the BJP has found it necessary to resort to Hindutva. The Bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, has started hearing the Babri Masjid case. Although Justice Misra has clarified that only the proprietary rights related to the property will be issued, and not religious or political arguments, it is clear that whatever the decision, the immediate electoral benefit of the BJP will be found. That’s why the opposition is attempting to hinder this process. After all, this is a political move.
Whether this attempt will be successful is doubtful since it is possible that the presiding officers of the House will reject the proposal. Evidently, even the BJP itself does not believe much in adhering to parliamentary traditions. Otherwise, the no-confidence motion against the Modi government should have been heard in the Lok Sabha till now.