For a moment let’s forget the legalities that are being debated over Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu’s rejection of a motion shepherded by a clutch of opposition leaders to impeach the Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra — that the Constitution does not provide for impeaching a Chief Justice; or that Article 124 (4) of the Constitution provides for removal of a judge only on “proved misbehaviour” or “incapacity”; or that the Chairman did or did not do the right thing in not referring the matter to a panel for a decision on allegations levelled against the Chief Justice of India; or even whether the House Chairman’s decision to reject the admissibility of a motion can be challenged in the courts. Let’s recall the Press briefing the four senior-most judges of the apex court had held in January which had set the cat among pigeons and seeded, even if unknowingly, the present crisis. One of the Justices in that quartet,
Justice J Chelameswar, has today questioned the impeachment motion led by the Congress, saying: “ I do not understand why people are obsessed about removal. This cannot be the solution of every problem.” Another judge in that foursome, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, is reported to have strongly suggested that the past must be left behind and the country’s highest judiciary must move on. On his part, the Chief Justice of India has assured his fellow judges that he was doing his “best” in addressing various issues such as the delay in appointments of judges due to the Centre’s failure to clear the files at the earliest.
A four-member team would be constituted to collate grievances and bring them to the notice of the judges from time to time. Now, given that the Congress and other co-signatories to the impeachment motion have not tired of referring to the Press meet of the four judges earlier this year as ‘evidence’ that all was not well under Chief Justice Misra’s leadership, they ought to also take into account the opinion of the Justices on the impeachment drive. Eminent legal luminaries, not all supposed to be leaning towards the present political dispensation at the Centre — among them being Ram Jethmalani and K Parasaran — have decried the impeachment attempt. Jethmalani termed the move as “nonsense”, while the latter said the matter stood ended after the Rajya Sabha rejected the admission of the motion. Battered from all sides — including from within, with legal brains such that Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Salman Khurshid refusing to endorse the impeachment idea — the Congress is now desperate for a face-saver and is thus seeking to approach the court. Some people never learn.
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