CJI Misra impeachment: Congress fishing in troubled waters, says Jaitley

The petition filed by 2 Congress MPs challenging rejection of the impeachment notice against CJI Dipak Misra was head by a 5-judge Constitution Bench of SC and subsequently dismissed as withdrawn

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra today got a relief after two Congress MPs, challenging Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu's order rejecting the impeachment notice against him, withdrew their petitions from the Supreme Court.

The top court expressed its reluctance to go into their contention questioning the setting up of a larger bench to hear the matter.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice A K Sikri declared the petitions moved by the two MPs as "dismissed as withdrawn" after senior advocate and party leader Kapil Sibal, appearing for the MPs, decided not to press the pleas realising that the judges were not inclined to accept his arguments. Sibal had sought to know who had ordered the listing of the matter before a larger bench and sought a copy of the order, saying this was necessary to enable them decide whether or not to challenge it.

The two Congress MPs had yesterday moved the apex court challenging the rejection of the impeachment notice against the CJI by Naidu, claiming that the reasons given were "wholly extraneous" and not legally tenable. Sibal had then mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar, the senior-most after CJI Misra. While Justice Chelameswar initially asked him to mention it before the CJI, the bench, which also comprised Justice S K Kaul, later asked Sibal and advocate Prashant Bhushan to "come back tomorrow".

The Rajya Sabha Chairman had on April 23 rejected the notice, given by seven opposition parties led by the Congress for impeachment of the CJI on five grounds of "misbehaviour". This was the first time that an impeachment notice was filed against a sitting CJI.

The petition filed by the MPs had alleged that the charges contained in the notice of motion were extremely serious and called for a full fledged inquiry.

Here are the latest updates around Congress MPs' petition challenging Venkaiah Naidu's rejection of a notice for impeachment of CJI Dipak Misra and the five-member SC Bench that will be hearing the plea:

1) Congress fishing in troubled waters, says Jaitley: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley accused the Congress of fishing in troubled waters and adopting a fringe position over the issue of impeachment of the Chief Justice of India which he said will hurt immediately the party in the Karnataka elections.

"Finding a divided court, the Congress wanted to fish in troubled waters. If the motion for impeachment was unsustainable, the writ petition challenging the order of the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, was unarguable," Jaitley wrote in a hard-hitting Facebook post.

Jaitley said the rulings of the Chair on whether to admit a motion or otherwise, are not subject to judicial review.

"But wanting to fish in troubled waters", he said the Congress conceived of a strategy to "chose a court of its choice" for mentioning for constitution of the bench to hear the matter so that an unarguable matter could be arguable before a more receptive court.

2. Lawyers object to Kapil Sibal's appearance as advocate: Two lawyers today opposed in the Supreme Court the appearance of senior advocate Kapil Sibal in the plea filed by two Congress MPs challenging the rejection of impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra by the Rajya Sabha Chairman.

When the hearing began before a five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice A K Sikri, a lawyer objected to Sibal's appearance in the case, saying the senior advocate was also a signatory to the impeachment notice.

3. Cong MPs withdraw plea is SC challenging rejection of impeachment notice against CJI: Two Congress MPs today withdrew their plea in the Supreme Court challenging rejection of the impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra by Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

After a 45-minute hearing, a five-judge bench headed by Justice A K Sikri declared the petition as dismissed as withdrawn.

After senior advocate Kapil Sibal raised some objections on the setting up of the five-judge constitution bench to hear the matter, Attorney General K K Venugopal said only two MPs of Congress have approached the apex court.

Venugopal submitted that six other parties, which had given a notice for impeachment, did not move the top court. The AG said "the presumption is that all others have not supported the stand taken by the Congress to challenge the rejection of impeachment notice by Naidu."

The plea by two Rajya Sabha members -- Pratap Singh Bajwa and Amee Harshadray Yajnik -- was included in the supplementary list issued by the apex court's Registry yesterday evening.

In the petition filed by the two Congress MPs claimed that the reasons to reject the notice against the CJI given were "wholly extraneous" and not legally tenable.

4. This was always going to be the case: After the dismissal of the impeachment petition by the Supreme Court, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy said Kapil Sibal and the Congress had a habit of punishing themselves. “This was always going to be the case," he said.

5. SC judges who addressed the press against CJI Misra on January 12 not part of the Bench: It is significant that the matter were not listed before the judges who are number two to five in seniority. These senior-most judges --  J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Jospeh -- who had held an unprecedented and controversial press conference on January 12 and accused the CJI Dipak Misra for allocating important cases to the "select branches", were kept out of the hearing of the matter.

6. 'Notice to impeach CJI Dipak Misra unwarranted': The notice for impeachment of the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was "unwarranted" and an assault on the judiciary, the Bar Association of India (BAI) said. Emphasising on the need to bring transparency in the judiciary, the laywers' body passed a resolution to improve judicial governance in the backdrop of the public scrutiny faced by Supreme Court judges.

The BAI executive committee believes that the motion for impeachment of the Chief Justice of India, considering the facts and circumstances, was unwarranted, and was an assault on the institution of Indian judiciary," BAI President Lalit Bhasin said in a press release on Monday, reported PTI.

The resolution said Supreme Court judges should collectively establish an institutional structure for the internal governance of judiciary.

The bar association recommends that the equal participation of the Supreme Court and its judges will be essential to create an institutional mechanism that streamlines the judiciary's governance.

7. SC puts end to practice of mentioning cases before CJI: The Supreme Court has put an end to the practice of lawyers mentioning urgent matters before the Chief Justice of India. The apex court clarified saying that now onwards, such cases could only be mentioned before the apex court's Registrar for urgent hearing. The court asked Advocates-On-Record and junior lawyers to mention the matters for urgent hearing before the Registrar who will hear the plea for urgent listing and would take a call. The apex court, however, informed that the lawyers can approach the CJI if they are aggrieved by the order of the Registrar on listing of the case for urgent hearing.

8. 'Impeachment notice rejection well-reasoned': BJP leader and senior advocate Aman Singh on Monday said there was no legal ground to challenge the decision of the Rajya Sabha Chairman rejecting the impeachment notice against Chief Justice Dipak Misra. The decision was well-reasoned and it dealt with each and every ground mentioned in the impeachment notice, he said reacting to Congress MPs moving the Supreme Court to challenge the rejection of the impeachment notice against the CJI. According to a report in PTI, advocate Meenakshi Lekhi also said that the filing of plea in the apex court was a "deceptive methodology" of the Congress party to remain in the news.

Sinha further said Naidu had come to a conclusion after intense deliberation with top legal and constitutional experts and that the notice for impeachment was completely legally not capable of being kept in proper or good condition.

 

9. Chief Justice of India is the "master of roster": Attorney General K K Venugopal on Friday told the Supreme Court that the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is the "master of roster" and he has full power to allocate cases and to maintain discipline. Venugopal told a bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan that vesting case allocation with multi-member collegium instead of the Chief Justice would create multiple authority and result in "conflict and chaos", reported IANS.

Article 124(4) and (5) deals with the procedure to be followed for removal of an apex court judge.

10. Impeachment notice against CJI wrong, says Mamata: The Congress was wrong in giving an impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Trinamoool Congress (TMC) did not support the impeachment move, she said. "The Congress was wrong to give impeachment notice against the CJI. The Congress wanted us to support it. But we did not," she told "News 18 Bangla" channel. "I told Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi not to go for impeachment," Banerjee said, adding that her party did not want to interfere in the judiciary, reported PTI.