Congress to move Supreme Court if CJI's impeachment-notice is rejected
As the Congress awaits the decision of Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on an impeachment notice moved by it and other parties against CJI Dipak Misra, it is considering moving the Supreme Court if the petition is rejected, party leaders said. "The chairman's decision is open to being challenged. It is bound to go for a judicial review," said a Congress leader.
Congress was trying to build up "moral pressure" on CJI in the hope that he would step aside from judicial duty if an impeachment motion was moved against him. Judges who faced impeachment had earlier stepped aside from judicial work and Chief Justice should do the same, a party leader said. "It's only a convention, though there is no constitutional bar," the leader said.
The Congress party also hoped that the decision on the impeachment motion would be taken soon. "He (the RS Chairman) cannot sit on it indefinitely, though there is no deadline laid out in the Constitution," a legal expert said, citing the case of an anti-defection law where the court had said it should be decided within a "reasonable" time-frame.
Meanwhile, an official in the Parliament stressed that making public the contents of a notice before it was admitted violated Parliamentary rules. This assumes significance in the wake of the seven opposition parties, led by the Congress, initiating an unprecedented step last week for the impeachment of CJI Dipak Misra by moving a notice leveling several charges against him.
According to Rule 2.2 of Parliamentary Customs and Conventions in the handbook, a notice for raising a matter in the House should not be given publicity by any member or another person until it has been admitted by the Chairman and circulated by members. A member should not raise the issue of a notice given by him and pending consideration of the Chairman.
Leaders of the opposition parties had met Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, who is also the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, and handed over the notice of impeachment bearing the signatures of 64 MPs and seven former members, who had recently retired.
