Congress initiates formal process to impeach Chief Justice Dipak Misra: Nation at 9
- 6 years ago
The formal process to impeach Chief Justice Dipak Misra was initiated by the Congress on Tuesday on various charges. Though the Congress remained evasive on its stand, sources say that the grand old party is backed by the Left, the DMK, the TMC and a few regional parties. The Samajwadi party has also supported the proposal. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader DP Tripathi meanwhile said that some opposition parties have started signing a draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra. Sources say the charges against Dipak Misra include not acting upon allegations brought against him by the four senior judges, abuse of power in assigning sensitive cases to judges where he chose who were usually junior, judicial corruption related to the Prasad Medical Trust scam, alleged misconduct in land acquisition when he was a lawyer and the “alleged damage to the credibility of the institutional autonomy of the Supreme Court”.
Mamata Banerjee – who is working overtime to stitch together Opposition unity in Delhi with an eye on 2019 – meanwhile had earlier said that Trinamool Congress will go with whatever decision the other parties take on the impeachment of the CJI as one could not afford to ignore what the four dissenting judges had to say. For the opposition parties to bring an impeachment motion in Parliament, they need at least 50 MPs to sign the motion in the Rajya Sabha, where the opposition is in a majority. Otherwise, they need 100 MPs to sign the proposal in the Lok Sabha. There has been an opinion among some opposition parties that key issues raised by the four senior-most judges concerning the functioning of the Supreme Court, have not been addressed. On January 12, in a historic press conference, the four senior-most judges had complained about the arbitrary allocation of cases in the Supreme Court. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury had said that the party was contemplating an impeachment motion with other opposition parties against the CJI.
This will be the first instance of a CJI facing an impeachment motion. Impeachment motions have been moved in the past against a Supreme Court judge and some High Court judges, but none of them were impeached.
Mamata Banerjee – who is working overtime to stitch together Opposition unity in Delhi with an eye on 2019 – meanwhile had earlier said that Trinamool Congress will go with whatever decision the other parties take on the impeachment of the CJI as one could not afford to ignore what the four dissenting judges had to say. For the opposition parties to bring an impeachment motion in Parliament, they need at least 50 MPs to sign the motion in the Rajya Sabha, where the opposition is in a majority. Otherwise, they need 100 MPs to sign the proposal in the Lok Sabha. There has been an opinion among some opposition parties that key issues raised by the four senior-most judges concerning the functioning of the Supreme Court, have not been addressed. On January 12, in a historic press conference, the four senior-most judges had complained about the arbitrary allocation of cases in the Supreme Court. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury had said that the party was contemplating an impeachment motion with other opposition parties against the CJI.
This will be the first instance of a CJI facing an impeachment motion. Impeachment motions have been moved in the past against a Supreme Court judge and some High Court judges, but none of them were impeached.