Vice President mulling over Opposition notice to impeach CJI
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu is in the process of closely scrutinizing the notice submitted by Opposition members on Friday demanding Chief Justice Dipak Misra's impeachment. Naidu will take a call on whether to accept or reject the notice after consultation with legal experts, said government sources on the condition of anonymity. Here's what might unfold, depending on Naidu's decision.
"Once a notice is submitted, the RS secretariat does a factual verification of the signatures given by the MPs and submits its report...The RS chairman will consult legal luminaries to decide if...there is ground to admit or reject the motion," said a government official.
While there is no official timeframe within which the decision has to be made, in previous such cases, decisions were normally taken within three to 13 days. Legal experts are of the opinion that if Naidu rejects the notice, the petitioners might challenge that decision in court. If Naidu does choose to accept it, a whole new elaborate process will be set in motion.
Now that the Opposition has moved the motion, the first uncertainty is if it'll be admitted by heads of both the Houses. It then needs to be passed by two-thirds of half the strength of either House. The Opposition doesn't have the numbers. Moreover, investigation of accusations can take over a year; Misra retires in 2018. The motion isn't likely to affect Misra's work.
