Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday that the impeachment motion moved by the Opposition parties against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was “misconceived” and meant to “intimidate” the Supreme Court judges.
Jaitley said the Congress had moved the motion despite knowing that if put to vote, it would not get the required two-thirds majority in either House of Parliament. “Its [Congress’] object was not the passage of the motion but intimidation of India’s judiciary,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader wrote in a Facebook post titled “Why the mala fide impeachment motion was bound to fail.”
Rajya Sabha members of seven Opposition parties, led by the Congress, had submitted the notice to Naidu on Friday. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu rejected the notice on Monday.
Seeking a judicial review of the rejection of the impeachment notice would be a “blunder” as the decision of the Rajya Sabha chairperson is “not justiciable in the court of law”, Jaitley said, adding that it was a “suicidal future move” for the Congress.
Jaitley said the impeachment motion was “poorly drafted” as it lacked enough evidence to prove misbehaviour beyond reasonable doubt.
“Any inquiry set up subsequent to a possible admission of a motion cannot be a fishing and roving inquiry,” Jaitley wrote. “The inquiry does not have to search for better evidence or a better set of facts. The motion must contain a definitive case which makes out a case ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ that the judge is guilty of ‘proved misbehaviour’.”
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