For the first time ever a motion for impeachment against the Chief Justice of India was raised. A lot of them including few lawyers and lawmakers said that it had to do with the top court judgment on the BH Loya case but the Congress leading the opposition in the move have said it has got nothing to do with that.
Mr Jaitley said it is the opposition’s strategy and an attempt to intimidate a judge and called in a dangerous event. On the other side the opposition said he, the CJI misused his supremacy to sway the outcome of politically-sensitive cases. Senior Advocate Ram Jethmalani in an interview said ” The persons who have initiated this mischievous propaganda are people who have no knowledge of the law at all. Or, they know the law and they have completed ignored it.”
The opposition petition lists five “charges” including the assigning of sensitive cases to handpicked judges. “We wish this day had never come,” the opposition said in a statement.
The Constitution of India says a Supreme Court judge can be impeached only on the grounds of “proved misbehavior or incapacity”. The opposition have moved a motion based on 5 grounds of misbehavior. The first one cited with regards to a CBI probe into a medical college scam in Uttar Pradesh involving the Prasad Education Trust wherein it is said that references to the CJI through nuance & innuendo is quite evident. The next charge is regarding handling a writ petition in which he was likely to be investigated as well.The next charge is regarding the dates of the matter to be taken up , the opposition alleges that the note was presented before Honorable Justice Chelameswar was antedated. Mr Kapil Sibal said “The charge of antedating is by all accounts a very serious charge,”.
The fourth charge relates to the Chief Justice having acquired land when he was an advocate by giving an affidavit which is said to be found false. The fifth & of the last charge is with regards to the “abuse of exercise of power” by the Chief Justice in choosing to send sensitive matters to particular benches to influence the verdict by “misusing his authority” as master of the roster.
If one recalls this allegation is similar to what the four judges had cited to in their press conference, the immediate trigger being the petitions seeking an independent probe into the death of Judge Loya.
Justice Fali Nariman a retired judge, speaking to the Indian Express conceded that the fact that other senior judges felt that CJI was not being fair in allocation of cases was a very grave problem. However, he said that the spritit of collegiality should be preserved and said that the best idea was to lump it , as the CJI retires at 65 and there is no extension. The impeachment motion needs to be supported by at least 50 Members of Parliaments in the RS or 100 in the LS ,While around 71 MPs have signed the impeachment, which means the decision now lies in the hands of Speaker/Chairperson who is none but the vice president of India Venkaiah Naidu.
If the motion is admitted, then the Speaker/ Chairperson forms a three-member committee comprising a senior judge of the Supreme Court, a judge of a high court and a distinguished jurist to investigate the charges leveled against the CJI. After which the Parliament can then take up the consideration of the motion.The House would then require a special two-third majority to pass the motion.After passing in one House (LS/RS), the bill goes to the second House which also has to pass it with the special majority.
If that goes through then it is placed before the President for their approval. Once President gives his assent, the CJI stands impeached. In this case given the time to the retirement of the CJI & the duration of the probe, this seems unlikely but the opposition despite difference of opinion within their own parties have gone ahead with the appeal to the VP.