Prima facie case against Karnataka chief justice, says CPM’s Yechury.
Seventy-five opposition members of the Rajya Sabha on Monday submitted a notice to House chairman Hamid Ansari for the impeachment of Karnataka high court chief justice PD Dinakaran. To initiate impeachment proceedings against a sitting judge, a notice signed by 50 Rajya Sabha or 100 Lok Sabha members is required.
The MPs belonged to parties including the BJP, CPI(M), CPI, BJD, JD(U), AIDMK, Samajwadi Party and BSP.
The notice of motion, to be sent to the president, has been sent under article 217 of the constitution, to be read along with article 124 (4).
CPI(M) MP Sitaram Yechury, one of the prime movers of the notice, said: “Since the government of India has returned the finding of the collegium of judges appointing Dinakaran as a Supreme Court (SC) judge, we feel it amounts to a prima facie case for impeachment.”
Leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said the move to impeach Dinakaran gathered steam when members of the Committee on Judicial Accountability sent letters to MPs.
The next step will be the setting up of a three-member panel comprising a high court judge, a Supreme Court judge and an eminent jurist to go into the allegations against Dinakaran. “If the allegations have any meat in them, then impeachment proceedings will begin,” said a source.
Ironically, Monday was also the day law minister M Veerappa Moily said the government was preparing to bring a legislation tightening norms for the appointment of judges and accountability. “No person of shady character should become a judge,” Moily said during question hour in the Rajya Sabha, adding that the Judges (Standards and Accountability) Bill would be introduced “maybe in the last days of the (current) session (that lasts till December 21)”.
The last impeachment procedure against a judge had been initiated in 1993, against justice V Ramaswami. The Congress had then declared itself in support of the judge and the matter was not put to the vote. But this time round it may not be so simple.
While the Congress and its allies in government are not signatories to the MPs’ notice, the fact remains that it is the UPA government which returned the collegium’s suggestion appointing Dinakaran as an SC judge.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said: “At the initiation process, it is not necessary for everyone to take a position. However, we will take an appropriate position on the issue at an appropriate time.”
Senior Congress members told DNA that if the judges enquiry committee indicts Dinakaran, “then the impeachment process goes through”.
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