Kapil Sibal Withdraws CJI Impeachment Motion: Read Statement From His Press Conference
We have nothing against any judge or the CJI personally, but we want to protect the dignity of the court and at the same time we want to ensure that the procedure of the court is not polluted, said Kabil Sibal.
New Delhi, May 8: Congress leader and petitioner in CJI Impeachment Case, Kapil Sibal addressed a press conference on Tuesday questioning the process of formation of the bench for the hearing of CJI Deepak Misra's Impeachment motion case. "We wanted to know who passed the order of the case being referred to a bench of five judges. We asked for the copy because how could we argue the case without the order copy?", Sibal asked.
The Congress senior advocate further said, "They asked us to argue the case on merit basis, but how could we argue the case on merit without the details of the order copy" adding that there is no order in Indian judiciary that cannot be challenged. "They didn't tell us whether we could get the copy of the order or not and hence we withdrew the case", Sibal said, stating his reason behind withdrawing the impeachment motion.
Earlier today, Sibal withdrew the CJI Impeachment petition after the Supreme Court bench including Justice AK Sikri refused his demand of providing a copy of the administrative order. Talking on the CJI, he clarified that "We have nothing against any judge or the CJI personally, but we want to protect the dignity of the court and at the same time we want to ensure that the procedure of the court is not polluted."
The Supreme Court dismissed the petitions as withdrawn. Sibal, appearing for the MPs, asked who passed the order for setting up a 5-judge bench to hear the matter. Sibal questioned the SC's order on impeachment plea and asked to show how reference was made to refer to Constitution bench. No single judge of the bench had an answer for this. "Matter was listed before 5-judge bench through an administrative order, CJI can't pass such orders in this matter," said Sibal.
Sibal dramatically changed strategy and sought to know how the CJI overnight passed an administrative order listing the petition before a five-judge bench. "Give me that order. I want to challenge it," Sibal said. The Congress leader said SC repeatedly asked what purpose it would serve if Sibal was given a copy of the administrative order passed by the CJI referring the petition to the five-judge bench. The Congress leader said only after getting the order he would decide whether to challenge it or accept it.
The bench was headed by Justice AK Sikri, number six in seniority. The other members are Justices SA Bobde, NV Ramana, Arun Mishra and AK Goel, who are next in the sequence of seniority. On Monday, two Congress MPs - Pratap Singh Bajwa from Punjab and Amee Harshadray Yajnik from Gujarat filed the petition in the apex court against the rejection of the notice, which was moved by seven opposition parties last month.
The CBI impeachment notice had gone to the bench of Supreme Court judges number six to 10. Sibal, the petitioner for the case asked for a copy of the order but was refused. Prominent public interest litigaton lawyer Prashant Bhusan, while talking to the media shortly after the withdrawal of the impeachment notice, asked that the CJI being the master of the roster, we want to know who is deciding about the benches hearing the case(s) and if he is having a say in it, how can he (CJI Dipak Misra) decide who's going to hear cases against him? He said that they are yet to take a call regarding the future course of action regarding the impeachment motion.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 08, 2018 12:47 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).