Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu rejected yesterday the Congress-sponsored impeachment motion seeking to remove Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra from the post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.v

Soon after the rejection of the motion was known, Congress was at war-path stating that it would move the Supreme Court challenging the Vice-President’s decision.  It may be recalled that a few months back, four senior Judges including Justice Chellameswar raised the banner of revolt against CJI Dipak Misra stating that he was functioning in an arbitrary manner and wasn’t giving strong cases to senior Judges.

Judges revolting against the Chief Justice of Supreme Court is an unprecedented occurrence in India’s Parliamentary form of democracy and it sent shock waves across the judiciary and as well as the people across the country.  Though the BJP-led Centre didn’t directly involve itself in the issue, Congress’ RS floor leader Ghulam Nabi Azad submitted notice for an impeachment, signed by 7 parties, motion against the CJI.

“I’m of the view that there is no substantial and verifiable evidence of wrong-doing on the part of the CJI,” Naidu said in his order rejecting the Congress-sponsored motion signed by 67 MPs from seven parties.  “I feel the allegations are neither tenable nor admissible,” the order said before adding “allegations emerging from the present case have a serious tendency of undermining the independence of the judiciary.”

Congress condemned the Vice-President’s rejection of its impeachment motion against the CJI stating that it (the decision) was ‘illegal, ill-advised and a hasty one’.  Former Union Law Minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal said the party would challenge the V-P’s decision in the Court.