JUSTICE V RAMASWAMI, Supreme Court

He was the first judge to face removal proceedings in Parliament. This happened in the 1990s; 14 charges, including misuse of office, intentional and habitual extravagance at the cost of the public exchequer, and moral turpitude by using public funds for private purposes were framed against him. He was accused of ostentatious expenditure on his official residence during his tenure as a chief justice of Punjab and Haryana high court. The BJP and Left parties submitted a notice of motion to Parliament seeking his removal from office. A judges committee found him guilty of 11 out of 14 charges. The removal motion was placed in Lok Sabha for debate and voting on May 10, 1993. Of the 401 members present in Lok Sabha, there were 196 votes for impeachment, no votes against, and 205 abstentions (all by members of the ruling Congress and its allies). The motion, which required not less than a two-thirds majority of the total number of members present in both houses and an absolute majority of its total membership, thus failed.