Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu bats for CJI, rejects impeachment

New Delhi: Indian judiciary on Monday entered uncharted territory when Rajya Sabha chairperson M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected the impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra submitted by seven Opposition parties, shortly after which the Congress party decided to move the apex court challenging the Vice-President’s order.

The Congress, in fact, will trigger an unprecedented crisis in the judiciary when their petition challenging Mr Naidu’s order is admitted. Convention demands that the CJI doesn’t hear the case himself and the next senior most judge — who is in this case is Justice J. Chelameswar — gets to hear it.

Justice Chelameswar is one of the four judges, who had held a press conference in January on the problems facing the Supreme Court, chief among which was the CJI’s functioning as master of the roster.

Rajya Sabha chairperson Mr Naidu, who had held extensive consultations with top legal and constitutional experts, including former chief justices and judges, before taking the decision, rejected the motion early Monday morning before the Supreme Court opened citing lack of substantial merit in it.

In a hard-hitting response, senior lawyer and Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who is one of the chief architects of the motion said: “We will certainly move a petition in the SC.”