Trying to impeach India’s chief justice a futile step

Recent turmoil is a sad reflection of political bickering and hypocrisy in the world’s largest democracy

The allegations levelled against India’s Chief Justice Dipak Mishra by lawmakers led by the opposition Congress party involve misbehaviour and incapacity — such as alleged abuse of administrative power in allocating high-profile cases in the Supreme Court to junior judges. The move has taken the showdown between a section of the executive and the judiciary to uncharted territory, since no chief justice has ever been targeted for impeachment. But since independence, provisions in the Constitution of India for impeachment of judges have never yielded satisfactory results. The process is so cumbersome that most attempts have failed despite the requisite parliamentary quorum and the evident transgressions. Instead of pursuing judicial reforms, political parties have always been more interested in reaping political benefits of taking on the judiciary.

While Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s accusations of the Congress party using impeachment as a political tool is facile — any attempt to expose a nexus between the judiciary and the ruling dispensation will always be branded as political — it is true that trivialising constitutional provisions sets a dangerous precedent. And the hypocrisy of Congress leader Kapil Sibal leading the charge on impeachment is hilarious: As a lawyer, he had defended Justice V. Ramaswami, the first judge in India against whom impeachment proceedings were initiated in the early 1990s. In 2010, it was the same Sibal who had campaigned against any attempt to impeach judges!

Perhaps Vice-President and Chairman of the Upper House of parliament M. Venkaiah Naidu’s reasoning in rejecting the petition will not withstand legal scrutiny if challenged. But a political slugfest over judicial accountability will only fuel more petitions, thereby eroding the credibility and independence of one of the strongest pillars of democracy in India. The way forward lies in fast-tracking reforms — such as the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill — and making Indian judiciary more accountable, efficient and transparent.