Congress circulates draft proposal for impeachment motion against CJI: Report
A draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against Chief Jusatice of India Dipak Misra has been circulated to parties by the Congress, sources said on Monday.
A draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra has been circulated to parties by Congress: Sources pic.twitter.com/QqJeMkXk1T
— ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2018
NCP leader DP Tripathi said a lot of Opposition parties had signed a draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of India.
"A lot of opposition parties have signed a draft proposal for moving an impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra. Many parties like NCP, Left parties and I think TMC and Congress also have signed it," DP Tripathi said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan earlier in the day to discuss a possible impeachment motion against the CJI, ANI reported.
The move comes more than two months after four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court went public with their allegations against the Supreme Court chief justice.
In January, in an unprecedented development, the top court's four next highest-ranking judges, Justices Kurian Joseph, Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur, had criticised the distribution of cases by the chief justice to judges and raised concerns about judicial appointments. They also said all top judges should be involved in setting the procedures used to hire and promote judges in all the country's courts.
The judges had said the issues involving its administration were serious enough to prompt them to go public.
"The four of us are convinced that unless this institution is preserved and it maintains its equanimity, democracy will not survive in this country," Justice Jasti Chelameswar told a news conference.
The judges did not give specific details of their concerns during the press conference, but said "it is an issue of assignment of a case".
The justices released a letter they had written to Misra in which they mentioned cases of "far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution" that were selectively assigned by the chief justice without rational "basis for such assignment".