After a seven-hour impeachment process marked by a brainstorming debate, 189 members of the 206 present in the 245-member House voted in favour, recording well over 2/3rd majority required for such a move.
History of an unsavoury kind is in the making and 53-year old justice Soumtira Sen of the Calcutta high court is on way to becoming the first judge to be impeached in independent India.
After a seven hour rare non-partisan debate spread over two days, the Rajya Sabha passed the motion for his impeachment with an overwhelming 189-17 majority, marked by one abstention and opposition from the BSP only. Now the motion will go to the Lok Sabha, where it is expected to be debated on August 24-25.
Justice Sen has now been held guilty of ‘proven misconduct’ relating to his actions as a lawyer when he was appointed a receiver by Calcutta HC, and then charged with misappropriating lakhs of rupees, and subsequently misrepresenting the facts as a judge when the legal proceedings began for the recovery of the money.
The tone and tenor of the debate made it clear that with Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption crusade gathering decibels outside, the parliament was more than keen to send across a unified message that when the “occasion arises it rises to the occasion to punish the corrupt in high places.”
Members cutting across party lines seemed determined to reject the eloquent pleadings made by justice Sen in front of the house on Wednesday. Leading the thrust was senior lawyer Ram Jethamalani who observed that ‘cheats and charalatans’ possess the gift of gab and “eloquence without moral sense” serves no purpose.
He also made light of justice Sen’s contention that the charge of misappropriation would not hold against him because he had returned all the money that was due to him.” You should realise as to why he paid back the money? He returned the money because in exchange he got freedom from criminal culpability that could have even led to his being sent to jail for several years,” argued Jethamalani, a veteran criminal lawyer.
Blaming the ‘trade unionism among the judges’ for a decision of the two judge bench that exonerated justice Sen of the charges of misappropriation, Jethamalani stressed that this was a bad judgement as it did not take into account the facts that were placed before the three-member enquiry committee appointed by chairman of the Rajya Sabha that held him guilty.”
The respondent Sen has always evaded cross-examination. In fact, on Wednesday when he was presenting his case in the house, I wanted to ask him just three questions, and that would have been over,” he added while pointing out that ‘no witness should be believed unless he has been cross-examined properly by a lawyer who knows the art of cross-examination’.
He made a point that justice Sen should not have been appointed a judge in the first place, and now that he has been found guilty of such a conduct unbecoming of a judge, he should not be permitted to continue as a judge.
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