Cong, 6 parties make first move ever for CJI removal

Parties accuse top judge of ‘misbehaviour’, ‘misusing authority’

NEW DELHI: The Congress and six other opposition parties on Friday submitted notice of a motion for the removal of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra on five grounds of “misbehaviour,” the first time in the history of India that such a motion has been initiated against the country’s top judge.

Leaders of the opposition parties, led by Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, met Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and handed over the notice signed by 71 members of the Upper House.

While seven members have retired since the time they signed the notice — it has been in the works for several weeks — it still has 64 signatories.

The removal motion can be moved even when Parliament is not in session, and requires the signature of 50 Rajya Sabha MPs or 100 Lok Sabha members. Besides the Congress, those who signed the notice include members of the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of IndiaMarxist, Communist Party of India, Nationalist Congress Party and the Indian Union Muslim League. Nominated member KTS Tulsi also signed the motion.

No CJI has ever been impeached in India, and any decision on the notice by the Opposition parties against justice Misra is likely to be taken by Naidu fol-

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

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

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.