Naidu rejects motion to impeach India’s CJ

FE Team | Published: April 24, 2018 00:45:44

Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu

NEW DELHI, Apr 23 (Reuters): India's Vice-President and chairman of the Upper House of parliament, Venkaiah Naidu, has rejected the opposition's notice for impeachment of Chief Justice (CJ) of India, Dipak Misra. But the Congress, which submitted the motion had said that it would approach the Supreme Court if the Vice President rejected it.
In his 10-page order, Naidu has dealt with every charge mentioned and claimed that the Opposition MPs were "unsure" of their own case and was based on "suspicion and conjectures."
Naidu's order observed, "The Honorable Members of Parliament who have presented the petition are unsure of their own case. Page 1 of the petition uses phrases such as 'the facts and circumstances of the Prasad Education Trust show prima facie evidence that the Chief Justice of India may have been involved in a case of illegal gratification.'
The motion further states with regard to the Chief Justice of India that 'he too was likely to fall under the scope of investigation.' It further states that the Chief Justice of India 'appears to have ante-dated an administrative order.'
"I am mentioning this fact because the language used by honorable members of Parliament themselves indicate a mere suspicion, conjecture or an assumption."
"The same the same certainly does not constitute proof beyond reasonable doubt which is required to me a case of proved miss behavior under article 124 of the Constitution. Conver-sation between third party with dubious credentials, which have been extensively relied upon, cannot themselves constitute any material evidence against the older of the office of Chief Justice of India," the order further stated
Naidu cited a Supreme Court order to reiterate that the CJI, as Master of Roster, was entitled to allocate cases as he deemed fit and referred it as an internal matter of the judiciary."
Naidu, who was in Hyderabad, cut short his visit and returned to Delhi on Sunday for consultations. He has spoken to Attorney General KK Venugopal, former Supreme Court judge B Sudarshan Reddy, former Secretary General of parliament Subhash Kashyap and Law Secretary PK Malhotra.
The Congress, which led the opposition bid to impeach the Chief Justice, had however said that it will move the Supreme Court if the Vice President rejected the impeachment motion.
71 opposition MPs and seven parties had signed the motion which was presented to the chairman of the Upper House of parliament, the Rajya Sabha.
Not all Congress MPs had signed or even supported the impeachment motion. The non-signatories included former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Finance and Home Minister P.Chidambaram and former Law Minister Ashwini Kumar.
Some felt that the move was ill-conceived as it was not based on proven wrongs but only allegations.