Opposition’s charges against CJI
The first charge relates to an alleged bribery scandal involving Lucknow-based Prasad Education Trust, which ran a medical college. It was an “act of misbehaviour” on part of the CJI , the notice says, to deny permission to prosecute Allahabad HC judge Narayan Shukla.
The Allahabad judge was alleged to have been bribed to deliver a favourable judgement to PET, which the union
government
Dipak Misra
lowing consultations with legal experts. The removal has been sought under provisions of the Constitution dealing with the appointment and removal of Supreme Court judges.
A message left at the office of the Chief Justice seeking his comment on the opposition parties’ move elicited no response. “We wish this day had never come…. As representatives of the people, we are entitled to hold the Chief Justice accountable, just as we are accountable to the people. The majesty of the law is more important than the majesty of any office,” senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal told had barred from admitting students. The trust had moved the Allahabad court and the SC, where the CJI also heard it. Meanwhile, CBI was investigating the alleged bribery scandal.
The second charge is that the CJI dealt administratively and judicially with a writ petition “in which he too was likely to fall within the scope of investigation”. The notice lists the November 9 incident when Justice Chelameswar was told (by the CJI) not to hear a matter since it was with a different bench. This was a petition related to the CBI investigation into PET.
The third charge is that the letter by which Chelameswar
reporters after submitting the notice. The move came a day after a Supreme Court bench, headed by the CJI, rejected public interest litigation for a probe into death of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court judge BH Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case in which present BJP president Amit Shah was named and then discharged.
“The impeachment motion has nothing to do with the Supreme Court verdict on Judge Loya. In fact, we had sought an appointment with the Rajya Sabha chairperson a week ago,” Azad clarified. The five charges levelled was informed of the case allotment was “antedated”. It was dated November 6.
The fourth charge is that the Chief Justice acquired land when he was an advocate by giving a false affidavit. “The Chief Justice surrendered the land only in 2012 after he was elevated to the Supreme Court” despite the allotment being cancelled years earlier, the notice says.
The fifth charge relates to the “abuse of exercise of power” by the Chief Justice in choosing to send sensitive matters to particular benches by “misusing his authority as Master of the Roster with the likely intent to influence the outcome.”
against the CJI in the notice include “conspiracy to pay illegal gratification” in the Prasad Education Trust case and denial of permission to proceed against a retired high court judge in the same matter.
The Prasad Education Trust case surfaced last year when the CBI arrested a retired judge of the Orissa high court and five others in a bribery case. A petition for an independent inquiry into the case was admitted by a bench headed by justice J. Chelameswar and it passed an order to set up a constitution bench of five senior most judges of the Supreme Court to hear the petition.