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Process to impeach justice Yashwant Varma begins
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) lawmakers didn’t sign the notice, said a senior TMC leader.
At least 149 lawmakers from the Lok Sabha and 63 from the Rajya Sabha on Monday signed two separate impeachment notices against sitting high court judge, justice Yashwant Varma, kicking off the process to remove the judge who is battling allegations of corruption after wads of cash were recovered from his house in Delhi.
The notices were signed by parliamentarians from more than 10 parties. But signalling a possible rift in the Opposition on this issue, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) lawmakers didn’t sign the notice, said a senior TMC leader.
Both opposition parties – constituents of the broader Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance – have 41 lawmakers each in Parliament. Some government managers had earlier said that they had secured the support of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on the issue.
“None of the TMC and SP leaders have signed the notice. It was still submitted by the Congress. TMC MPs were at the party’s mega rally in Kolkata on Monday,” said a senior TMC leader, requesting anonymity.
Government managers told HT that they were still hopeful about securing the TMC and SP’s support during voting on the impeachment notices.
For the removal of a sitting judge, the motion requires the signatures of 100 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 50 in the Rajya Sabha. For the motion to pass, it has to garner the support of a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-third of the members of the House present and voting. This means that a successful impeachment motion will need multi-party support.
“I need to inform you that I have received notice of motion…to constitute a statutory committee for the removal of justice Yashwant Varma...This has been received by me today,” said vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar. He himself unexpectedly resigned later in the day.
“It has been signed by more than 50 members of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and thus it meets the numerical requirement of signing by MPs for setting in motion a process for removal of a high court judge..I direct the secretary general to find out whether a similar motion has been moved in the House of People,” he added.
During the session, Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal informed the chair that a motion was moved before the Lok Sabha speaker.
“Since the law minister is present here and has so indicated that a similar motion has come to be presented by a requisite number of MPs of Lok Sabha - more than 100, to the Lok Sabha speaker, the provisions of Section 3(2) will come into effect and the secretary general will take necessary steps in this direction,” Dhankhar added.
After the notice is admitted in both Houses, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha chairman Dhankhar will constitute a three-member panel of jurists to probe the charges. The entire process of impeachment must be completed in the monsoon session that ends on August 21. Justice Varma will get up to three opportunities to defend himself before Parliament.
In the Lok Sabha, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, former Union ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party members Anurag Thakur, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and PP Chaudhary signed the notice. Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule and Congress MP KC Venugopal also signed the notice.
In the Rajya Sabha, all Congress leaders except Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi signed the notice, said a party lawmaker.
A Lok Sabha official said the Congress, BJP, Telugu Desam Party, Janata Dal (United), Janata Dal (Secular), Jana Sena party, Asom Gana Parishad, Shiv Sena, Lok Jan Shakti Party, Communist Party of India, and other parties signed the notice.
In both Houses, the two notices against Justice Varma will be taken up for consideration on Tuesday.
The entire process will come under the purview of The Judges (Enquiry) Act. The law states, “Provided that where notices of a motion referred to in sub-section (1) are given on the same day in both Houses of Parliament, no Committee shall be constituted unless the motion has been admitted in both Houses and where such motion has been admitted in both Houses, the Committee shall be constituted jointly by the Speaker and the Chairman.”
On May 5, a three-member in-house committee set up by the apex court submitted its report to then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna confirming that cash was indeed found at the residence of justice Varma, then a sitting Delhi high court judge. This cash was kept in a storeroom where a fire broke out March 14, following which fire service officials and police, engaged in dousing the flames, discovered half-burnt currency notes stacked in a sack. The police even recorded a video of the cash .
Former CJI Khanna then wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating that the allegations of recovery of cash at the judge’s residence was serious and warranted initiation of proceedings for his removal under the Constitution.
Justice Varma has also moved the Supreme Court, seeking to invalidate the findings of the in-house judicial inquiry that held him prima facie liable for serious misconduct.
