The unprecedented move by the Congress-led opposition to impeach Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra "smacked of political overtones" rather than any "misbehavior" and "misuse" of authority and might not succeed in Parliament, constitutional experts felt today.
Levelling allegations, leaders of the seven opposition parties met Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, who is also the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, and handed over the notice of impeachment bearing signatures of 64 MPs and seven former MPs, who recently retired.
The move that came a day after an apex court bench headed by the CJI rejected the pleas for a probe into special CBI judge B H Loya's death, was termed as "motivated" and "political" by eminent jurists such as Soli Sorabjee, former high court judges S N Dhingra and Ajit Kumar Sinha and senior advocate Vikas Singh.
Sorabjee, who was attorney general during the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, made a scathing attack on the opposition's decision to go for impeachment of the CJI, saying, "This is the worst that could happen to the independence of the judiciary."
On the issue of allocation of benches by the CJI, Sorabjee said, "After all he is the master of the roster. He knows which case should be sent to which bench. I don't understand how any judge can say that certain cases should be allocated to me or us unless you find there is a definite policy."
Agreeing with him, Justice Sinha said, "The issues have been going on for the last one-two months and got revived yesterday with the judgement of the apex court in judge Loya matter. This (impeachment move) prima facie appears to be a reaction by the people, who want to impeach the judge, because of yesterday's verdict."
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