Opposition parties led by the Congress met Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday to hand over a notice for impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

As per media reports, over 60 MPs of the Rajya Sabha belonging to seven political parties gave the notice for the impeachment against the CJI.

The MPs who signed the notice belong to the Congress, the NCP, the CPI-M and CPI, the SP, the BSP and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

While addressing the media after meeting Naidu, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that seven parties had signed the impeachment motion against the CJI.

He added that the impeachment motion had been brought under Article 271 of the Constitution, on grounds of ‘misbehavior’ of CJI Dipak Misra.

The leaders of these parties had earlier met in Parliament and given final shape to the notice for impeachment. After the meeting, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad confirmed that the leaders were moving the notice for impeachment against CJI.

Among those who attended the meeting in Parliament were Congress leaders Azad, Kapil Sibal and Randeep Surjewala, besides CPI’s D Raja and NCP’s Vandana Chavan.

However, as media reports, the Trinamool Congress and the DMK, which were initially in favour of the impeachment against the CJI, decided to abstain.

The impeachment notice comes a day after the Supreme Court rejected a bunch of petitions seeking an independent probe into the death of Judge B H Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.

The SC judgement was delivered by a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India.

Impeachment motion

An impeachment motion in the Rajya Sabha has to be supported by at least 50 MPs of the Upper House, while the number of MPs supporting such a motion in the Lok Sabha is 100.

Once the notice for impeachment is submitted to the Rajya Sabha chairman, he will ascertain whether there is merit or ground for moving such a motion.
In case he finds merit, then he may form a committee to look into it, else he can reject it.

If moved, this will be the first time ever in the country’s history that an impeachment would be moved against the Chief Justice of India.

We are all very disturbed about it: SC

Earlier in the day, while hearing a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) seeking to restrain the media from reporting on the issue of impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra, an SC bench termed the debates on Misra’s impeachment as ‘unfortunate’