V-P junks CJI impeachment notice

In his capacity as Rajya Sabha Chairman, Vice-President of India M Venkaiah on Monday rejected the Congress-led Opposition’s notice for impeachment of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, inviting a strong protest from the party, which is likely to move the SC against the decision.

Seven Opposition parties led by the Congress had last week moved a notice before Naidu for impeachment of the CJI on five grounds of “misbehaviour”. Describing Naidu’s move as “unprecedented”, the Congress stressed that “never before in India’s history” had a motion moved by MPs been dismissed at the preliminary stage.

On the other hand, the BJP “thanked” Naidu for rejecting the impeachment notice and said the Opposition party’s attempt was an act of “blasphemy” towards the Constitution.

Before taking the decision, Naidu held extensive consultations with top legal and constitutional experts, including former Chief Justices and judges. Naidu also spoke to former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap, ex-law secretary PK Malhotra and former legislative secretary Sanjay Singh on the issue. He also held deliberations with senior officials of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat and also spoke to former Supreme Court Judge B Sudarshan Reddy. The Vice-President also spoke to the Attorney General on the issue.

Naidu continued with the deliberations till late on Sunday evening and spoke to K Parasaran, who was the Attorney General during the Congress Governments led by Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and was also a member to the Upper House nominated by the party.

In his order, Naidu said he had detailed personal conversation on all the aspects arising from the notice and had considered each of the allegations made in it individually as well as collectively.

“Based on all this, I have come to the conclusion that this motion does not deserve to be admitted... On careful analysis and reflection, I find there is virtually no concrete verifiable imputation. We cannot allow any of our pillars of governance to be weakened by any thought, word or action,” he said.

The Rajya Sabha Chairman said after having perused annexures to the motion, detailed consultations and studied opinions of constitutional experts, he was “satisfied that admission of this Notice of Motion is neither desirable nor proper”. “In passing, I am constrained to observe that in this matter, the well-established parliamentary customs and conventions as have been delineated in para 2.2 of the Handbook for Members of the Rajya Sabha have been disregarded,” Naidu said.

“I have considered the material contained in the Notice of Motion and reflected upon the inputs received in my interaction with legal luminaries and constitutional experts, I am of the firm opinion that the Notice of Motion does not deserve to be admitted. I refuse to admit the Notice of Motion,” he said.

The Congress said it would move the Supreme Court to challenge the “illegal order” which had “shattered” the confidence of the people. “We will certainly move a petition in the Supreme Court. We are confident that when we move the petition, the CJI will have nothing to do with it so that it is heard and the serious issues, which are constitutional in nature and which will determine whether we bring transparency to the system, would be heard in the court,” senior Congress leader and a legal expert Kapil Sibal said.

“It is illegal because the Chairman has passed an order which is required to be passed after a full-fledged enquiry,” said Sibal, adding that the Rajya Sabha Chairman had to only ascertain whether the motion was in order. “It is our privilege to move the motion. You cannot boot the privilege in this manner,” he said.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said rejection of the Opposition’s impeachment plea of the CJI by the Rajya Sabha Chairman was done with a “certain degree of non-application of mind”. “I am sorry to say that about the honourable Vice-President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Naidu), but I think that the methods that had been very clearly laid down -- both in the constitutional procedures and the rules -- have not been followed,” Yechury said in his reaction.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy hailed Naidu’s decision of rejecting the impeachment notice. “The Vice-President should have rejected it (impeachment notice) the day it was filed because the content of the notice was made public,” Swamy said. “Anyway, it’s a good decision,” he said on the rejection of impeachment notice.

BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi told a Press conference that the Congress was adopting “intimidatory” tactics towards the Supreme Court and its move was not an attack on the individual but an institution as it wanted to create anarchy by making people “lose” faith in the judiciary.

“We thank him. He did not allow his office to be misused,” she said, adding that the impeachment notice was the “grossest abuse of power” by the Congress.

To a question about the Congress’s assertion it would challenge the decision in court, she said it was free to do so but highlighted the reported differences in the party over the move to impeach the CJI and said it had legal experts who knew law more than Kapil Sibal and had reservations about the exercise.