CJI Dipak Misra impeachment- SC bench to hear petition today A 5-judge SC bench of judges A K Sikri, Arvind Bobde, N V Ramana, Arun Mishra and A K Goel will hear petition against V-P M Venkaiah Naidu's decision to reject the CJI Dipak Misra impeachment notice
After two Rajya Sabha members of the Congress party on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of their impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, a five-judge Bench comprising Justices A K Sikri, S A Bobde, N V Ramana, Arun Mishra and A K Goel will on Tuesday hear their petition. The MPs have questioned Upper House Chairman and Vice-President of India M Venkaiah Naidu's decision to reject the party's notice for an impeachment motion against the CJI.The Bar Association of India, a voluntary organisation of lawyers stated that "the notice for the impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was "unwarranted" and an assault on the judiciary".Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, also one of the signatories of the impeachment notice, mentioned the petition filed by two Members of Parliament -Partap Singh Bajwa and Amee Yajnik -- for an urgent listing before a Bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar. Sibal said Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu could not summarily reject the notice bearing signatures of 64 MPs and seven former members who had recently retired, on the ground that there was "no proved misbehaviour".
Here are the latest updates around Congress MPs' petition challenging Venkaiah Naidu's rejection of a notice for impeachment of CJI Dipak Misra and the fivemember SC Bench that will be hearing the plea. 1. SC Bench to hear petition against rejection of impeachment notice: Hours after two Congress MPs on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging Naidu's rejection of an impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, a five-judge Constitution bench has been set up by the apex court to hear the crucial petition on Tuesday as a first item at 10.30 am. 2. In their petition, the Congress MPs have sought quashing of rejection: The Congress MPs have in their petition requested an "appropriate writ, order or direction of like nature, quashing the order dated 23.04.2018," passed by Rajya Sabha Chairman Naidu rejecting the impeachment notice against CJI Misra "as arbitrary, impermissible under Section 3(1) of the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968, and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India". 3. SC judges who addressed the press against CJI Misra on January 12 not part of the Bench: It is significant that the matter has not been listed before the judges who are number two to five in seniority. These senior-most judges -- J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Jospeh -- who had held an unprecedented and controversial press conference on January 12 and accused the CJI Dipak Misra for allocating important cases to the "select branches", have been kept out of the hearing of the matter. 4. 'Notice to impeach CJI Dipak Misra unwarranted': The notice for impeachment of the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was "unwarranted" and an assault on the judiciary, the Bar Association of India (BAI) said. Emphasising on the need to bring transparency in the judiciary, the laywers' body passed a resolution to improve judicial governance in the backdrop of the public scrutiny faced by Supreme Court judges. 5. SC puts end to practice of mentioning cases before CJI: The Supreme Court has put an end to the practice of lawyers mentioning urgent matters before the Chief Justice of India. The apex court clarified saying that now onwards, such cases could only be mentioned before the apex court's Registrar for urgent hearing. 6. 'Impeachment notice rejection well-reasoned': BJP leader and senior advocate Aman Singh on Monday said there was no legal ground to challenge the decision of the Rajya Sabha Chairman rejecting the impeachment notice against Chief Justice Dipak Misra. 7. 'Congress faces suicidal future if it moves SC on CJI impeachment': The Congress Party could be facing a "suicidal future" if they went ahead and legally challenged Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu's decision not to entertain an impeachment motion against Supreme Court Chief Justice Dipak Misra, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday in a Facebook post. 8. Chief Justice of India is the "master of roster": Attorney General K K Venugopal on
Friday told the Supreme Court that the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is the "master of roster" and he has full power to allocate cases and to maintain discipline. Venugopal told a bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan that vesting case allocation with multi-member collegium instead of the Chief Justice would create multiple authority and result in "conflict and chaos", reported IANS. 9. SC to hear in July the plea to restrain MPs making statements on judges' removal: The Supreme Court said that it would hear in July a plea seeking to restrain members of Parliament (MPs) from making public statements on the removal of a judge of the higher judiciary without there being any such notice in Parliament. A SC bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan observed that Rajya Sabha Rules also prohibits such statements by Parliamentarians without there being any such notice in the House. 10. Impeachment notice against CJI wrong, says Mamata: The Congress was wrong in giving an impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Trinamoool Congress (TMC) did not support the impeachment move, she said. "The Congress was wrong to give impeachment notice against the CJI. The Congress wanted us to support it. But we did not," she told "News 18 Bangla" channel. "I told Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi not to go for impeachment," Banerjee said, adding that her party did not want to interfere in the judiciary, reported PTI.
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