After weeks of deliberations, seven opposition parties including the Congress submitted a petition for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. The petition has over 70 signatures and was submitted to the Vice President Venkaiah Naidu.
The opposition released a statement explaining this move and said, “The Constitution allows only one recourse to remedy the situation. Since there is no other way to protect the institution except to move on (sic) impeachment motion, we, members of the Rajya Sabha, do so with a heavy heart.”
This move comes after the Supreme Court Bench headed by CJI Misra ruled the death of Judge B. H. Loya in 2014 as natural and no investigation was needed. Judge Loya’s mysterious death occured at the time he was deciding on the murder charges against BJP President Amit Shah.
It is not an easy task to have the Chief Justice of India impeached. According to the Constitution, first, the two Houses of Parliament need to address the impeachment. This will be followed by a vote in which the Houses will need a majority of two thirds. The voting will be presented to the President who will issue the impeachment if most are in favor.
In January, the top judges of the Supreme Court held a press conference against the CJI. This was the first time in India’s history that the Supreme Court Judges asked the nation to decide CJI Misra’s impeachment. There has been a long standing rift between the top most judges and the head of SC Misra. The issue is the allotment of cases, according to the Judges, Misra has assigned high profile cases to judges lower than the top five judges in the Supreme Court.
This unprecedented rebellion by the Supreme Court of India has raised a lot of heads. The four senior Judges Justice Chelameswar, Justice Gogoi, Justice Kurian and Justice Lokur announced that the administration of the Supreme Court was not in order. After these bold claims, the Supreme Court Judges released a letter they wrote to Chief Justice of India Misra. The letter details the problems and issues faced by these judges due to Misra’s decisions.
