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HomeIndiaGovernanceCJI impeachment: Karnataka polls delaying opposition’s counter-strategy

CJI impeachment: Karnataka polls delaying opposition’s counter-strategy

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Congress, which said it would move the top court after impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra was rejected by the Rajya Sabha chairperson, is yet to take any step forward.

New Delhi: The 12 May Karnataka assembly election seems to have stalled the opposition’s counter-strategy in the CJI impeachment issue, ThePrint has learnt.

On 23 April, Rajya Sabha chairperson Venkaiah Naidu rejected the impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra saying it was “neither legal nor desirable or proper” to admit it.

Within hours, Congress leader and senior advocate Kapil Sibal had said that his party will move the Supreme Court against the rejection.

“We will accept whatever the court says, but we do not want the CJI to have anything to do with it, be it the listing or anything else,” Sibal had said.

The petition, according to sources in the Congress party, was to be filed immediately but no such move has been made to date.

If the top court finds Naidu’s rejection illegal, the impeachment motion will be revived and a three-member inquiry committee will have to be set up to probe the allegations against Misra, who is due to retire in October this year.

Sibal and Congress MP Vivek Tankha, also a senior lawyer, did not respond to queries from ThePrint.

Senior Congress leaders, including former PM Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P. Chidambaram have opposed the idea of pushing for impeachment of CJI Misra, raising doubts if the opposition parties have the political capital and numbers to pass the final motion in Parliament.

Even as a case was made to protect the independence of institutions like the judiciary, seven opposition parties led by the Congress had on 20 April moved a notice with Naidu for impeaching the CJI on five grounds of “misbehaviour”.

The opposition alleged “his conduct is unbecoming of a person holding the office” of Chief Justice of India.

Naidu said that constitutionally, there is an obligation on MPs to “prove” misbehaviour before the parliamentary procedure can come into play. The Vice-President held that the allegations emerging from the present case would tend towards “undermining” the independence of the judiciary.

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