Jaitley hits out at notice, says it’s ‘revenge’ action
NEWDELHI: The opposition’s notice of a motion to remove CJI Dipak Misra is “a revenge petition” filed after the Congress’s falsehood had been established in the case relating to Judge BH Loya’s death, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday in a blog post. He said the notice is an attempt to intimidate a judge and send a message to other judges — that if you don’t agree with us, 50 MPs are enough for a revenge action. “The charges read out are issues those which have been settled by judicial orders or by precedent. Some issues are stale, trivial and have nothing to do with judicial functions,” Jaitley wrote in a blog, on a day Congress and other opposition parties submitted a notice to RS chairman M Venkaiah Naidu for initiating impeachment proceedings against the CJI.
“What has happened today is a price the Indian judiciary has to pay for misadventures of many. There is no better time for judicial statesmanship and political foresight,” Jaitley wrote.
On Thursday, a Supreme Court bench led by Misra dismissed petitions seeking an independent probe into the 2014 death of special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court Judge Loya, caling them a serious attempt to scandalise the judiciary and obstruct the course of jus- tice.Loya had been heaing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case in which Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, who was discharged in the case later, was one of the accused.
The death came under the spotlight in November 2017 after media reports quoted his sister as raising questions about the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.
The Congress denied any link between the decision in the Loya case and the notice of a motion to remove Misra that was submitted to Rajya Sabha chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday.
“Perhaps he (Jaitley) did not know that we had sought time from the Rajya Sabha chairperson a week ago. Does he mean to say that the Congress party already knew the outcome of the Judge Loya case? He should stop misinforming and misleading the people,” said Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.
The finance minister said a divided court itself was the “single greatest threat’ to judicial independence, citing a January press conference by four Supreme Court judges ,who had questioned the allocation of cases by the chief justice.
“The four judges of the Supreme Court who held the controversial Press Conference, are all experienced judges and in my view, men of high integrity. Had they checked up the facts of Judge Loya case before commenting on it, even though only on a listing issue? Should anyone at all be commenting on a pending case because many comments created an environment of prejudice and even added credibility to utter falsehood as they did in the present case?”.
He wrote, “Is the impeachment motion filed today a direct result of the press conference? Does this impeachment set a precedent that political parties in India will use impeachment as an instrument to intimidate judges hearing controversial matters?”
The finance minister said there has been an evolution of public interest crusaders graduating into “Institution Disruptors”, who pick up even false causes and pursue the falsehood with a sense of deep commitment, indulge in intimidating advocacy, are shrill with their opposing colleagues, and are rude and impolite with judges.
“They firmly believe that every falsehood that they propound must be accepted as the gospel truth. They have found two strong allies. A section of the media gives them publicity. Simultaneously, we have witnessed the devolution of the Congress from a mainstream party now taking fringe positions,” he wrote in the blog.
Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who was among the petitioners seeking an investigation into the death of judge Loya, said impeachment was the “only option left to secure accountability for CJI’s repeated acts of misconduct”.
“Those who say impeachment will erode credibility of SC don’t realise that it’s (sic) credibility was being eroded by acts of CJI already in public domain. This might stop further erosion,” he said on Friday in posts on Twitter.
The Loya petition and its allocation was recounted as one of the reasons for which the next-four highest judges of the top court held an unprecedented press conference late last year to criticise the manner in which cases are allotted in Supreme Court – a charge seen directly aimed at the CJI.
The Congress, Jaitley said, is too willing to identify with these “Institution Disruptors” and intimidation of courts had become the new form of advocacy.
“A divided court is finding itself helpless to respond to these intimidatory tactics. The judgement indicates that intimidatory tactics were used as an alternative to one-sided set of facts in the case. The ‘Institution Disruptors’ have now become spokespersons of the Judge Loya death case falsehood,” he said.
Never ever so blatantly in the past, Jaitley said, had national political parties, a few retired judges and some senior lawyers so closely identified themselves with the generation of falsehood that they almost come out as conspirators.
“Many of those who raked up the Judge Loya death case were associated against Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin case,” Jaitley said, adding that Shah had no role in Sohrabuddin case.
“It did not matter to Amit Shah as to which judge heard this flimsy charge against him. Amit Shah was discharged in the case. Some individuals challenged the discharge order before the Mumbai high court and the Supreme Court. The challenge was rejected,” Jaitley said.