Congress withdraws plea from Supreme Court
NEW DELHI: Just a day after going to the Supreme Court, senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Tuesday withdrew the petition challenging vice-president and Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah’s Naidu decision to reject the notice of removal motion against CJI Dipak Misra from the Supreme Court.
The petition was filed by two Congress Rajya Sabha MPS Partap Singh Bajwa from Punjab and Amee Harshadray Yajnik from Gujarat -- challenging the vice-president’s decision to nix the bid to impeach the Chief Justice.
A five-judge bench of Justices A K Sikri, SA Bobde, N V Ramana, Arun K Mishra and Adarsh K Girl dismissed the petition as withdrawn.
Sibal’s appearance for the two RS Congress MPS was objected by two advocates R P Luthra and Ashwini Upadhyay who said the Bar Council of India prohibits those advocate politicians who have signed the notice of removal motion from arguing the same case. But the apex court said it was for Sibal to decide whether to argue or not.
The top court repeatedly asked what purpose it would serve if Sibal were given a copy of the administrative order passed by the CJI that referred the petition to the five-judge bench. Sibal maintained that only after getting the order would he decide whether to challenge it or accept it. But when the Supreme Court expressed reluctance to part with the administrative order, Sibal then abruptly decided to withdraw the petition.
At a press conference shortly after withdrawing the petition, Sibal listed the reasons why the petition was withdrawn. He expressed unhappiness at not getting a copy of the order passed by the CJI on the five judge-bench that was to hear the plea.
Attorney general K K Venugopal said only two MPS of the Congress had approached the top court, none of the six other parties whose members were signatories to the impeachment notice.
“The presumption is that all others have not supported the stand taken by the Congress to challenge the rejection of impeachment notice by Naidu,” said Venugopal.
BENGALURU: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday said his party will resolve the Cauvery water dispute if it comes come back to power and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi declined to solve the problem as suggested by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Speaking to reporters here, the former union minister also said the prime minister's attack on Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, while raking up the National Herald case at a poll rally, will have no impact on electoral prospects of the Congress party in the May 12 Karnataka assembly polls as all charges were “bogus”.
Addressing a rally in Hubballi yesterday, Modi had hit back at the Congress for targetting BJP'S chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa, saying the mother and son who are out on bail and are facing allegations of involvement in a Rs 5,000 crore scam are questioning the BJP. Chidambaram said that Modi, instead of levelling charges against Gandhis in public, should make them in Parliament. “If he wants to level any charges, let him stand up in Parliament and make the charge and we will reply... It (reference to National Herald case) will not have any impact on the electoral prospects of the Congress in the ensuing election,” the Congress leader said.
Chidambaram said all charges against Gandhis are bogus but Modi wants to por- tray the issue as if they have committed a major crime.
“It is a routine procedure that the court summons... You appear and the court grants bail...,” he stated.
To a query, Chidambaram said the Congress would solve the Cauvery water dispute when they come back to power.
He also blamed Modi for declining to solve the problem as suggested by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
In the national capital, the Supreme Court today told the Centre that it was in “sheer contempt” of its direction on Cauvery water sharing for failing to frame a scheme for distribution of water between Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.
The apex court, in February, had asked the Centre to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its judgement on the decades-old Cauvery dispute.