The formal process to impeach Chief Justice Dipak Misra was initiated by the Congress on Tuesday on various charges, according to multiple reports.
The Times of India quoted sources as saying that the Congress was backed by the Left, the DMK and a few other regional parties. The Samajwadi party has also supported the proposal.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader DP Tripathi said on Tuesday that some opposition parties have started signing a draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra.
"Some opposition parties have started putting their signatures on the draft proposal," he said.
According to the Economic Times, the charges against Dipak Misra include not acting upon the allegations brought against him by the four senior judges, abuse of power in assigning sensitive cases to judges he chose who were usually junior, judicial corruption related to the Prasad Medical Trust scam, alleged misconduct in land acquisition when he was a lawyer and the “alleged damage to the credibility of the institutional autonomy of the Supreme Court”.
Trinamool Congress head Mamata Banerjee also reportedly agreed to join the parties. The NCP and the CPI(M) have put their signatures.
“I can only say that Trinamool Congress will go with whatever decision the other parties take on the impeachment of the CJI. After all, one cannot ignore what the four judges had to say,” Mamata reportedly told reporters.
“The Congress being the largest opposition party has little belatedly initiated the proceedings for the impeachment of the honourable Chief Justice of India,” NCP leader Majeed Memon told Times Now.
“The process initiated by various Opposition parties to bring an impeachment motion against the CJI is a serious matter. This comes in the wake of grave charges levelled by four senior judges of the Supreme Court against the functioning of CJI as well as the charges levelled by retiring judge Amitava Roy,” he told ET.
For the opposition parties to bring an impeachment motion in Parliament, they need at least 50 MPs to sign the motion in the Rajya Sabha, where the opposition is in a majority. Otherwise, they need 100 MPs to sign the proposal in the Lok Sabha.
There has been an opinion among some opposition parties that key issues raised by the four senior-most judges concerning the functioning of the Supreme Court, have not been addressed.
On January 12, in a historic press conference, the four senior-most judges complained about the arbitrary allocation of cases in the Supreme Court. Following their press conference, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury had said that the party was contemplating an impeachment motion with other opposition parties against the CJI.
This will be the first instance of a CJI facing an impeachment motion. Impeachment motions have been moved in the past against a Supreme Court judge and some High Court judges, but none of them were impeached.
With IANS inputs