New Delhi, April 20:  About 71 MPs of the Rajya Sabha belonging to seven political parties gave the notice for the impeachment against the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Friday. The opposition parties led by Congress met Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu – the chairman of the Rajya Sabha in parliament and handed over a notice of impeachment.

Reports inform that the MPs who signed the notice belong to the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India (CPI), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Earlier, all leaders of opposition parties met in Parliament and gave final shape to the notice of impeachment. After the meeting, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad confirmed that the leaders were moving the notice for impeachment against CJI.

Reports by ANI state that 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. Sources said the Trinamool Congress and the DMK, which were initially in favour of the impeachment against the CJI, are no longer part of it.

The Impeachment process:

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 of 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.

Congress says CJI Misused His Post

Coming down heavily on CJI Deepak Misra, the Congress on Friday said that the CJI misused his post. Former minister Kapil Sibal said it was done with a heavy heart. Sibal said, “wish this day had never come in the fabric of our constitutional framework.” He alleged that the CJI misused his post as the head of the judiciary, which amounts to “misbehavior”. While addressing a press conference, Sibal said, “Since the day he (Dipak Misra) was appointed as CJI there have been questions raised in the manner in which he has dealt with certain cases”.

It must be noted that 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 above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 20, 2018 02:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).