Some ex-judges say it’s not fair, others feel removal justified if charges proven

NEW DELHI: The Opposition’s impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has evoked mixed response from former top judges.

Referring to the use of ‘if and may be’ in the draft impeachment motion, former SC judge Nitte Santosh Hegde said, “impeachment cannot be moved on grounds of suspicion”. However, he added that he would have refrained from conducting himself in the manner the CJI did. “Notwithstanding that allocation of work is a matter of discretion (of the CJI), if I were the CJI, I would have not have acted as alleged in the draft impeachment motion,” he added.

Making it clear that he is “not holding a brief for the current CJI”, he added: “Such accusations cannot institute an impeachment motion. For, they will tantamount to denigrating the judiciary”. Elaborating, he said “impeachment can be moved on grounds of proven misconduct. In the instant case, the complainant himself is not certain about the veracity of his allegations. I am against such roving inquires. This is not fair.”


Known for his bold judgements, Justice AP Shah, former chief justice of Delhi High Court does not view Opposition’s impeachment move as a transgression. He says, “the right to move an impeachment motion is a handle provided itself by the Judiciary to the political class.” On the charges levelled by the Opposition, Shah referred to the complaint made by advocate Prashant Bhushan’s Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms. “If the charges are going to be the same as mentioned in the complaint of CJAR, then they are all serious (charges).

From the alleged involvement in the medical scam to charges of conflict of interest (that CJI should not have taken up the matter), if any of the charges is proved it will be sufficient to warrant his removal” Justice (retd) Shah said. For, he added, this will tantamount to abuse of power as master of the roster. He said “I don’t know how this (impeachment motion) will play out. Another retired Supreme Court judge, requesting anonymity, shared his views on the issue.

“An impeachment motion shall not be reduced to an instrument of intimidation. It cannot be allowed to be misused as a handle to defang the judiciary. If the charges are serious, the political class is free to pursue an impeachment motion. Whether it makes the cut or not is a different proposition. But politicians ought to keep politics away from such serious affairs,” he said.