Why Manmohan Singh Did Not Sign Oppn Notice to Impeach CJI Misra

Seven opposition parties led by the Congress submitted a notice for an impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra.

File photo of Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. 

(Photo: PTI)

As Congress and six other Opposition parties came together to move a notice for the impeachment of the CJI Dipak Misra on Friday, 20 April, a few notable party members remained absent.

Choosing not to be a party to the cause in the list of 64 Rajya Sabha members was former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, NDTV reported.

"We didn't involve Manmohan Singh intentionally as he is an ex-PM," Congress leader Kapil Sibal confirmed at a press conference.

Sibal refuted claims that Singh refused to be a signatory, terming the rumours as “false,” the NDTV report added. Sibal also denied reports that Singh had refused to sign the petition.

Leaders of the seven opposition parties, led by Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, submitted the notice of impeachment against the Chief Justice citing five grounds of misbehaviour to Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday afternoon.

Lawyers P Chidambaram, Abhishek Sanghvi Choose to Stay at Bay

Lawyers P Chidambaram and Abhishek Manu Singhvi too stayed at bay from the affairs of the impeachment motion, the NDTV report added.

Senior Congress leader and former law minister Salman Khurshid opposed the party-led impeachment motion.

I don’t think anyone should cast aspersions on the judiciary. Not everyone will agree with the judiciary. The judiciary, in fact, doesn’t agree with itself sometimes. But this is procedure, we should respect it.

Salman Khurshid, Senior Congress Leader to ANI

Echoing a similar thought was fellow colleague Ashwani Kumar who felt the move “could have been avoided.” Speaking to ANI, he said, “I am on a larger principle and the larger principle is that impeachment is the extreme remedy and that too against the chief justice, which is an unprecedented move.”

The parties were Congress, Mayawati's BSP, Samajwadi Party, Sharad Pawar's NCP, CPM, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) members had signed the notice but retracted it later, Business Standard reported. With merely six months for the completion of CJI MIsra’s term, Trinamool Congress felt it was not legally advisable to support the motion and therefore didn’t sign the notice. Rashtriya Janata Dal too followed suit, the Business Standard report added.

The Congress, however, hinted at a general ‘consensus’ for the impeachment. The move comes a day after the SC ruling in the CBI Judge BH Loya’s death case.

This is the first time in the country’s history that an impeachment motion would be moved against the CJI.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his blog slammed the “Congress and its friends” for using the impeachment as a political tool. He further termed the Congress’ move to impeach the CJI as a revenge petition after their ‘falsehoods’ in the Judge Loya case stood exposed.

(With inputs from NDTV, Business Standard, ANI)

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