CJI Impeachment Row: SC rules out Congress MPs plea challenging the rejection of notice; Congress takes U-turn, withdraws the petition
The Supreme Court's five-judge constitution bench on Tuesday dismissed the plea of Congress MPs challenging the rejection of CJI impeachment notice by vice-president Venkaiah Naidu. The two petitioner, Congress lawmakers, quizzed the decision to assign the case to a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court. The Congress MPs, represented by Kapil Sibal, questioned how the five-judge bench led by Justice Sikra was constituted. The Congress took 'U' turn and withdrew its own MPs.
The two Congress Rajya Sabha MPs Partap Singh Bajwa and Amee Harshadray Yajnik have filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu’s decision to reject the notice of impeachment last month. The petition had said that the Vice-President Mr Naidu's rejection impeachment notice of oppositions was 'illegal and arbitrary' and taken in a "cavalier, cryptic and abrupt manner", without an inquiry.
The judges assigned to hear the Congress' challenge were Justices AK Sikri, SA Bobde, NV Ramana, Arun Mishra and AK Goel. Justices Bobde and Ramana are both in line for chief justice. Justice Sikri, who will head the bench, is number six in seniority.
Supreme Court dismissed the petitions of two Rajya Sabha Congress Parliamentarians Pratap Singh Bajwa & Amee Harshadray Yajnik as withdrawn. They had approached the SC challenging Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu's dismissal of the impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra. pic.twitter.com/VyP62FyWeW
— ANI (@ANI) May 8, 2018
Kapil Sibal said the matter was listed before 5-judge bench through an administrative order, adds that the Chief Justice of India can't pass such orders in this matter. The Congress MPs, represented by Kapil Sibal, questioned how the five-judge bench led by Justice Sikra was constituted. As per the report, the bench, however, refused to go into the details of how it was constituted following which Kapil Sibal said that in that case, the Congress MPs would like to withdraw the plea challenging the rejection of the impeachment notice against CJI Dipak Misra.
What happened in the courtroom during the hearing are completely based on comments of senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan made in front of reporters outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Earlier, over 70 MPs of the Rajya Sabha belonging to seven political parties led by Congress gave the notice for the impeachment against the CJI. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu could constitute a committee to look into the issue.
First published: 8 May 2018, 12:30 IST