The Constitution lays down a rigorous procedure for removal of a judge of a Supreme Court or high court which can be initiated only on grounds of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.
Articles 124 (4) of the Constitution and the provisions of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 and corresponding rules deal exhaustively with the whole procedure.
The process to remove a Supreme Court judge is mentioned in Article 124(4) of the Constitution. This process is termed as impeachment.
Article 124(4) of the Constitution says, "A Judge of the Supreme Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour incapacity."
For initiating the impeachment process, a motion has to be moved by either 100 Lok Sabha members of Parliament or 50 Rajya Sabha MPs. If the motion is admitted, the Speaker of Lok Sabha or Chairman of Rajya Sabha constitutes an inquiry committee.
This inquiry committee has three members -- a Supreme Court judge, a high court Chief Justice and an eminent jurist. The committee frames charges and asks the judge to give a written response.
The judge also has the right to examine witnesses. After the inquiry, the committee determines whether the charges are valid or not and then it finally submits its report.
If the inquiry committee finds that the judge is not guilty, then there is no further action. If they find him guilty, then the House of Parliament which initiated the motion may consider continuing with the motion.
The motion is then debated and the judge (or his representative) has the right to represent his case. After that, the motion is voted upon. If there is two-thirds support of those voting, and majority support of the total strength of the House, it is considered to have passed. The process is then repeated in the other House.
After that, the Houses send an address to the President asking that the judge be removed from office.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)