New Delhi, December 13
The ruling Congress today appeared to steer clear of the move by Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha to bring an impeachment motion against Karnataka High Court Chief Justice PD Dinakaran.
Congress spokesman Manish Tewari, when asked to comment on the party’s stand on the motion, said: “The Congress has not taken a decision on the issue either way.”
The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reforms, of which SC lawyer Prashant Bhushan is a convener, and the Forum for Judicial Accountability has drafted the impeachment resolution and submitted it to political parties, including the Congress, BJP, Left and the JD(U), for taking it forward. Tewari is among the Congress leaders to whom the resolution had been forwarded.
Several Rajya Sabha members have favoured impeachment of Dinakaran. A signature campaign is underway and more than 50 Rajya Sabha members from the BJP, the Left parties and the Samajwadi Party, among others, are said to have signed the petition. The petition in this regard was to be submitted to the House Chairman, Hamid Ansari, on Monday.
However, Congress leaders say the party would be able to give support only after making a thorough investigation of facts contained in the document.
With the Congress appearing hesitant to endorse the petition, sources say it may be withheld to allow the ruling party to be a part of it.
The fact is even if the Congress MPs do not sign the petition, considering that around 50 Left and BJP members are supporting it, the motion can still go through. While signatures of at least 50 MPs are needed for initiating the impeachment process, the notice has been signed by “much more than this statutory requirement”, SS Ahluwalia, BJP deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, told The Tribune yesterday.
As per rules, a petition must have signatures of at least 50 members of the total 250 in the Rajya Sabha, which is the first step in the impeachment process. However, the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reforms wants the Congress on board so that the Dinakaran case does not end up the V Ramaswamy way.
In early nineties, the first ever impeachment motion in India was brought up against apex court judgeV Ramaswamy after he was found guilty of misconduct by a committee of three judges. The Congress, which was in power then as well, had abstained from voting, leading to the defeat of the motion.
Notably, Dinakaran's proposed elevation to the Supreme Court had been put on hold following allegations of corruption and land grabbing levelled against him by bar associations of Tamil Nadu, Bangalore and the Supreme Court, besides eminent jurists like Fali S Nariman and Shanti
Bhushan.
