Opposition parties move Supreme Court against rejection of CJI ‘impeachment’ motion by Vice President

After the rejection of the motion for removal of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra by Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu, leaders of opposition parties have moved the Supreme Court against the decision.

Congress-led opposition parties had refused to accept the decision of the Rajya Sabha chairperson to reject the motion for removal of the Chief Justice of India. The Congress party had called it a fight between “forces rejecting democracy and voices rescuing democracy”.

The Congress had also asserted that while the constitutional process of removal is set in motion with 50 MPs giving agreement, the removal notice of the Chief Justice of India was agreed to by as many as 64 MPs.

The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Venkaiah Naidu, had decided not to consider the "impeachment motion" against Justice Misra by opposition parties, pointing out that there was lack of substantial merit in it. He rejected the motion following consultations with legal experts.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had targeted the opposition over the issue saying that the misconceived motion for the 'impeachment' of the CJI was just one example of the growing tendency of lawyer-MPs to drag intra-court disputes into the Parliamentary process to help different interests.

He also said that the Parliament was supreme in its own jurisdiction and its process cannot be subjected to judicial review and 'impeachment' motion was filed on untenable grounds for a collateral purpose to intimidate the CJI and other judges.

"A very large number of eminent lawyers are now Members of Parliament. Most political parties have given nominations to some of them since their value, both in court and Parliamentary debates, is significant. The incidental impact of this has been a growing tendency of lawyer members to drag intra-court disputes into the parliamentary process. The misconceived motion for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India is just one example of this," Jaitley had said.