VP Naidu acted in a hurried manner: Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee
Kolkata : Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said on Monday Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu acted in a “hurried manner” while rejecting the impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.
“This instance has set a bad precedence, which is not good for democracy,” he told PTI here, adding that Naidu should have followed proper procedures before rejecting the notice.
“There are procedures in the Constitution and chairman of Rajya Sabha should have followed it instead of acting in a hurried manner,” Chatterjee said.
Referring to previous instances of impeachment notices, Chatterjee said procedures were then followed properly.
Naidu rejected on Monday the unprecedented impeachment notice given by Opposition parties, led by the Congress, against CJI Dipak Misra, saying it “lacked substantial merit” and allegations were neither “tenable nor admissible”.
The vice-president held that the allegations emerging from the present case have a serious tendency of “undermining” the independence of the judiciary.
VP only statutory authority to reject the notice: F S Nariman
New Delhi : Eminent jurist Fali S Nariman on Monday said the issues raised in the impeachment notice against CJI Dipak Misra were not of “sufficient gravity and rightly rejected” by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.
Nariman said Naidu, the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, was the only statutory authority to take the decision on the notice.
“He (Naidu) was the only statutory authority to take that decision and in my view he has rightly taken the decision. The grounds raised in the impeachment notice are not of sufficient gravity.
“When you have a man like the chief justice of the Supreme Court, it (impeachment notice) has to have something that is far more important than just saying he did not do this or that. The vice president has the statutory authority and he has rightly rejected the notice,” Nariman told a TV channel.
On whether the gravity of charges should have been decided by an enquiry committee of three Supreme Court judges, Nariman said, “The CJI is as it is demitting office in October-November this year. Most unlikely that this matter will continue till then.”
“I can understand if there are 4-5 years remaining for him in office then you can argue. It doesn’t make sense to do it now,” he said.
He said this move by the opposition led by the Congress was only to demean the institution of the Supreme Court and it was not about Justice Misra.