Letter to BS: Aborting impeachment against CJI Dipak Misra is partisan

The rejection of the Opposition’s impeachment motion against Chief Justice Dipak Misra by Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu was a partisan order, notwithstanding its endorsement by “eminent jurists”. Whether the Vice-President acted on his own or at the behest of the government, his decision was blatantly unfair and tantamount to a contravention of a constitutional provision. The hasty decision denied 64 MPs a constitutionally guaranteed right to move an impeachment motion. It rested on the assumption that the motion was “politically motivated” sans constitutional validity. Still, the fact remains that all is not right with the Supreme Court.

Going into the merits of the motion is the task of a three-member panel that has to be constituted subsequent to the impeachment notice. The proof of misconduct cannot be insisted upon to set in motion the process of impeachment. It won’t be in the interest of justice to ignore a charge like the denial of permission to the CBI to register an FIR against a high court judge despite incriminating information in the medical college scam.

G David Milton  

Maruthancode