Impeachment

• Why in the News?

• On April 21, 2018, opposition parties - Congress, BSP, SP, CPI, CPM, NCP - decided to give notice of impeachment against Chief Justice of India under leadership of opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.
• 71 MPs of opposition parties signed in the impeachment motion. However, 7 of them are already retired and therefore 64 MPs signature will count.
• Under Article 124(4), opposition decide to impeach Chief Justice of India, Dipak Mishra.
• On April 20, Supreme Court of India dismissed petition seeking a Special Investigation Team(SIT) probe into the Special CBI Judge, BH Loya, noting that there were no grounds to hold even a reasonable suspicion about the cause or circumstances of Loya's death.
• After the decision of Supreme court, impeachment process has been carry out by opposition.

• How Impeachment process work?

• Just like all other constitutional positions, the CJI can also be impeached provided the necessary steps laid out in the constitution of India.
• As per Article 124(4), judges of the supreme court can impeached. But for that it is compulsory to present impeachment motion at the parliament.
• 100 Lok sabha MPs or 50 Rajya saabha MPs is the minimum number of signatories require to issue the notice.
• In the present scenario, opposition have 64 MPs signatories, therefore they can not issue the notice in Lok sabha.
•  The notice has to be handed over either to the speaker if it is from Lok sabha MPs or to the chairman if it is from Rajya sabha MPs(The chairman of the Rajya sabha is the vice president of India- Vankaya Naidu)
• Chairman of Rajya sabha or Speaker of the Lok sabha have special right to dismiss this propose.
• If the Chairman or Speaker dismiss this proposal than the process of impeaching must be restarted. If the proposal being accepted, the speaker or the chairman will have to constitute a three-member committee (a SC judge, a judge from high court and Law Professor) to investigate the charges levelled against the supreme court judge under Judges Inquiry Act,1968.
• The three-member committee has to support the motion for it to be sent back to the House where it was introduced where it has to be discussed and passed in both the Houses with a special majority- not less than two-third( as per Article 124(4)).
• Once it passes from both the Houses of parliament, the President can be approach to remove the Chief Justice of India.

• Indian History of Impeachment :

• V.Ramaswamy :
• Justice V.Ramaswamy was the first judge against whom impeachment proceeding were initiated, in 1993.
• The motion was brought up in Lok Sabha, but it failed to secured the required two-third majority. Although, Ramaswamy gave his resignation after that impeachment process.
• Justice Ramaswamy was cought in a controversy for spending extravagantly on his official residence during his tenure of Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana in 1990.  

• Other Judges who faced the Impeachment Process :

• P D Dinakaran : Chief Justice of the Sikkim High court ( July 2011).
• Soumitra Sen : Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court ( July 2011).
• J.B.Pardiwala : Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court ( 2015).
• SK Gangele : Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh (2015).

• World History of Impeachment :

• Impeachment is a Latin word which means 'to catch up'.
• Impeachment originated in England, in 14th century.
• Andrew Johnson, 17th President of U.S.A, was the first president who faces the impeachment process.
• There are many examples of impeachment, but regarding to India, Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India, faces the impeachment process in Great Britain parliament during 1788 to 1795.
• Hastings was accused of misconduct during his time in Calcutta particularly relating to mismanagement and personal corruption.

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