Unfortunate & disturbing: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court said on Friday that it was "very disturbed" by "unfortunate" public statements made by lawmakers on the issue of impeaching judges.

"We are all very disturbed about it," a bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan told the counsel of a petitioner who sought to restrain legislators and gag the press from reporting their statements on this issue. NGO In Pursuit of Justice has filed the PIL.

The top court sought the assistance of Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal on the issue. The Bench said it would not restrain the media before hearing the AG.

"Under Article 121 of the Constitution, even parliamentarians are restricted from discussing the conduct of a judge up to a certain stage. How can these legislators, as private citizens, talk about the same issue as and when they want? This will impact the independence of the judiciary," said Arora.

She argued that a judge cannot act freely if such discussions were swirling around him while he was still in office.

"Law is very clear and everyone is supposed to know the law. Even the legislature should know the law. The question is what we can do now," said the Bench, agreeing with Arora.

This comes on a day Congress and other Opposition parties made an unprecedented move to initiate impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. It also comes a day after the Supreme Court ruled special CBI judge BH Loya died of natural causes and petitions that sought an independent investigation into his death are a serious attempt to scandalise and attack the judiciary.

However, during Friday's hearing, no reference of the CJI was made. The apex court posted the case for hearing on May 7. Opposition parties are against CJI Misra following allegations against him by the seniormost judges of the Supreme Court.