Congress MP and senior lawyer slams the government for calling the removal motion against the CJI as politically motivated. He tells Subodh Ghildiyal that it is time to cleanse the system. Excerpts:
The removal motion against the CJI has triggered a political debate? Why was it filed?
The government has said it is ‘politics of revenge’. It can never be. Only the process is political, the motive is not political. When on January 12, four seniormost judges of the Supreme Court took a press conference and alleged the way SC was administrating justice was not in order, it had nothing to do with political process. When they said democracy was in peril or referred to judge B H Loya’s case, it had nothing to do with any political process. The disquiet has emerged from within the judiciary. And all those issues that were considered by the MPs to sign the motion were already in public domain for some time. The manner in which Prasad Education Trust matter was dealt with was in the public domain.
Unfortunately, a sitting HC judge is being prosecuted for it along with others, there are conversations (recorded). That ‘certain matters are being sent before certain judges’, was said by judiciary. Since January 2012, nothing was done and the crisis has continued. So, if somebody says it is ‘politics of revenge’, then that is politics.
The timing of the motion, filed a day after the SC judgment on Loya, lends itself to politics.
When Loya’s case was taken up, no political party participated in it. When signatures of
Rajya Sabha MPs were taken a month ago, we did not know any decision was being rendered in Loya’s case. We sought time from the RS chairman one week before the motion was filed. His office said he was travelling and time was given for Friday. Why do you say it has anything to do with Loya’s case?
Do views of four SC judges, who held the press conference on January 12, have a resonance with other judges?
That is not the issue. There have been impeachment motions before, Justices Gangele, Dinakaran, Ramaswami, Sen. You cannot get a referendum what other judges think. It depends on nature and seriousness of allegations. That is all. Judges of SC have to be godlike in their functioning. Who else can do justice? When Justice Sen was removed, finance minister
Arun Jaitley said, ‘When this divine function of deciding the fate of others is bestowed in a judge, we expect him to perform it with the highest standards of scholarship and utmost impartiality. He must be detached from all collateral persuasions’. The same test is being employed here. Is the CJI immune from any proceeding under the law?
Senior lawyer Fali Nariman said removal motion against the CJI would give a handle to the ruling party to move such motions against any judge who does not give a judgment to its liking?
What has that got to do with this issue? There is no delivery of a judgment in anyone’s favour here. Either, as he says, we lump it, we keep quiet and let things slide, if that is how you want justice delivery system to function, then that is not my point of view. That is an easy option, to let things be. But time has come when we cannot take easy options. What did the previous CJI T S Thakur say about how the government was blocking appointments, paralysing the judiciary; how he broke down.
How he said we are clearing the names but they are not. It is evident that this malaise has gone on for too long. What happened to the appointment of
Justice K M Joseph? The specious argument given is that he is not the seniormost judge. Are present judges appointed on all-India seniority? These are serious issues but they are not part of the impeachment motion. A situation has come to cleanse the system.
But is the entire opposition on board to move the motion?
This is not politics. What is required is 50 MPs and not political parties. It is a wrong take being given to the issue. We have talked to people, some are hesitant for some reasons, but there was enough consensus among MPs across the spectrum.
There is criticism that you are talking about removal in public.
When removal against Justice Dinakaran was moved in December 2009, who went public? Finance minister Jaitley and Sitaram Yechury. Who went public before the motion was admitted against Justice Ramaswami? Please ask members of
BJP.
How much time do you think the RS chairman will take to decide on the motion?
I don’t know. I hope soon because these matters should not linger on.
T
he Ayodhya case is being spoken about as a trigger for the removal motion?
What has Ayodhya case to with it? No political party is involved in it. Nobody has asked for adjournments. It is not an ‘article of charge’ in the removal motion. Those who are making this charge are playing politics
