More than two months after four Supreme Court judges levelled serious charges of impropriety against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, the Opposition has begun a serious exercise to impeach him. The move is led by the Congress.
The Congress has already circulated a draft proposal among members of the Opposition parties for moving the impeachment motion. Some top Congress leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal are understood to have already signed the proposal. NCP leader Majeed Memon has also signed the proposal.
“The Congress being the largest Opposition party has little belatedly initiated the proceedings for the impeachment of the honourable Chief Justice of India,” Memon told TV channel, adding that he too was a signatory to the draft on impeachment motion.
“A lot of Opposition parties have signed a draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra. Many parties like NCP, Left parties and I think TMC and Congress too have signed it (sic),” NCP leader DP Tripathi told ANI. The development follows West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan earlier in the day to discuss a possible impeachment motion against the CJI.
Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurien Joseph had earlier this year said Misra was assigning important cases in an arbitrary manner to junior judges, ignoring these four senior judges.
Among other things including “abuse of authority”, the draft refers to Prasad Education Trust case, a bribery scam in which the institution allegedly gave kickbacks to senior judicial functionaries for clearance to set up a medical college.
The impeachment proposal also alleges that Misra had submitted a false affidavit in a land acquisition matter while he was still serving as an advocate.