New Delhi, August 11
Impeachment proceedings will be held in the Rajya Sabha on August 17 for the removal of Justice Soumitra Sen, Judge of the Calcutta High Court, for alleged judicial misconduct, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said today.

The proceedings were likely to spill over to the next day, the minister said. For removing Justice Sen, the impeachment motion should get the support of a two-third majority of the members of both Houses present and voting in the same session.

Justice Sen would be given an opportunity to defend himself in Parliament before the motion is put to vote.

In a report submitted last year, a three-member Inquiry Committee headed by then Supreme Court Judge B Sudershan Reddy had held Justice Sen had indeed misappropriated “large sums of money” when he was a court receiver before becoming a Judge and made “false statements” in a bid to wriggle himself out of the charge.

The report of the committee, which included Punjab and Haryana HC Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and noted jurist Fali S Nariman, was placed in both Houses of Parliament on November 10.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari had constituted the probe panel following an impeachment motion moved by CPM leader Sitaram Yechury and 57 other members of the Upper House, seeking Justice Sen’s removal on the charges of misappropriating Rs 33 lakh which he had received in 1993-95 in his capacity as the court receiver.

So far, there has been only one impeachment attempt in Parliament. The impeachment motion against SC Judge V Ramaswami could not be carried in 1993 as the Congress had staged a walkout.