Congress MPS withdraw CJI impeachment plea

NEW DELHI: A petition by two Congress MPS against Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu’s rejection of an impeachment motion against Supreme Court Chief Justice Dipak Misra was withdrawn on Tuesday.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for the MPS, withdrew the petition after the five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Justice AK Sikri asked him to argue the main matter challenging Naidu’s order on merits. They did not agree to his plea for a copy of the administrative order which led to the bench being set up on Monday. Rajya Sabha members Pratap Singh Bajwa and Amee Yajnik had moved the top court challenging Chairman Naidu’s rejection in April of the notice of motion seeking the removal of Chief Justice Misra.

“You (want) to challenge that (administrative order setting up fivejudge bench) for what outcome?” Justice Sikri asked Sibal, who told the bench: “You must say who passed the order. I must have the copy of the order so that I can challenge it.”

As Sibal argued that the matter

SIBAL SAID HE WITHDREW A PETITION AS THE CASE HAD BEEN REFERRED TO A FIVE-JUDGE BENCH WITHOUT FOLLOWING THE DUE PROCESS

could be referred to a Constitution Bench only by a judicial order and wondered how could it be done by an administrative order, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel asked if there was a bar on directly referring the matter to a five-judge bench by the latter process.

The bench reminded Sibal that at the outset of the hearing he had said that he has no personal agenda and was for upholding the dignity of the court. “Will the dignity of the court be jeopardised if you give me that (administrative) order (constituting five-judge bench). It is not a secret document under the National Security Act,” Sibal countered.