Congress-led opposition signs draft proposal for impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra

Nearly two months after the four senior-most judges accused the Chief Justice of India of putting the democracy at risk, the Congress-led opposition has begun a signature drive to initiate an impeachment motion against Dipak Misra. NCP General Secretary DP Tripathi told ANI that a lot of opposition parties have signed the draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra. "Many parties like Nationalist Congress Party, Left parties and I think TMC and Congress have also signed it," he said.
 
To remove a judge, an impeachment motion should be initiated with the support of 50 MPs if it is introduced in the Rajya Sabha and 100 MPs if it is introduced in the Lok Sabha. The proposal can be submitted in either House. However, the Speaker has the right to admit or reject it. In case the motion is accepted, the Speaker constitutes a three-member committee to look into the charges made against the judge concerned and if found guilty the House can take up the matter for voting.

A judge can be removed only on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. In this case, the Congress and other opposition parties have taken up the issues raised by four senior Supreme Court judges in January.
 
Earlier in January, Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurien Joseph held an unprecedented press conference to put out some administrative differences with Chief Justice Misra. They accused the CJI of assigning important cases in an arbitrary manner to preferred junior judges.

The revolting judges in a seven-page letter to CJI made some damning observation on the conduct of Chief Justice Misra. The letter was later released to the press. It said: "There have been instances where cases having far reaching consequences for the nation and the institution have been assigned by the chief justices of this court selectively to the benches 'of their preference' without any rational basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs."
 
Apart from this, there are two other serious allegations that the opposition has included in its draft motion as a ground for the impeachment.  It accused the CJI of receiving illegal gratification in Prasad Education Trust Case and submitting a false affidavit for an alleged land acquisition while Misra was an advocate.   
 
The draft proposal for impeachment motion may be coming now, but the talks of impeachment had begun soon after the judges made their difference public. In January, the CPM had started reaching out to other opposition parties to discuss the possibility of bringing an impeachment motion against CJI Misra.
 
NCP MP Majeed Memon in an interview on Tuesday said that several opposition MPs have signed the petition to remove the Chief Justice. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is also supporting the motion and on Tuesday she met senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan on the issue.