Have done my job: V-P defends CJI order

A day after he rejected the Opposition’s notice for the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday defended his stand and said he took a timely, not hasty, decision.

At a meeting with Supreme Court lawyers on Tuesday, Naidu said, “Some Hon’ble Members of the House had a point of view and the right to express it while I had a responsibility cast on me. I have done my job and am satisfied with it”.

On Monday, Naidu rejected a notice by six Opposition parties including the Congress for the removal of Chief Justice Dipak Misra.

He maintained that the notice lacked substantial merit and that the allegations were neither “tenable nor admissible”.

His decision left Opposition leaders such as Sitaram Yechury complaining that it was “another step to destroy the independence of the judiciary.”

“Chief Justice of India is the highest judicial functionary of the country and any issue in public domain concerning him requires to be resolved at the earliest following prescribed procedures so as to prevent the atmosphere from being further vitiated.

“Issues raised in the notice mostly pertained to the functioning of the Supreme Court and they have to be resolved internally. Any other means of seeking to address them amounts to interference in the independence of judiciary,” an unfazed Naidu said on Tuesday.

Even as the Opposition has threatened to challenged Naidu’s order in the Supreme Court, officials pointed out that it was not the first such instance.

“The lawyers referred to a similar notice against Supreme Court Judge JC Shah rejected by the then Lok Sabha Speaker G S Dhillon and Justice Shah later becoming the Chief Justice of India. They also recalled that a notice for removal of Justice PD Dinakaran was admitted within three days,” a release from the Rajya Sabha chairman’s office said.

NEWDELHI: