Vice President of India and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected the Congress-led Opposition's notice to remove Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra holding that there was no “substantial and verifiable” evidence of wrongdoing. In his order, Naidu said, “I am of the view that the allegations are neither tenable nor admissible.” He added that the “allegations emerging from the present case have a serious tendency of undermining the independence of the judiciary.”
A total of 64 MPs belonging to the Congress, NCP, CPM, CPI, SP, BSP, and IUML had issued a notice seeking removal of Misra. They had levelled allegations of corruption, impropriety, and arbitrariness in allocation of cases as grounds. After holding consultations with lawyers, jurists, constitutional experts, and retired and serving bureaucrats, Naidu said the condition “proved misconduct” laid down in the Constitution obliged those levelling charges to furnish proof of their allegations before the process for the removal kicked in. In a detailed order, he said, “The members of Parliament who have presented the petition are unsure of their own case. The phrases used by MPs themselves indicate a mere suspicion, a conjecture or an assumption. The same does not constitute proof beyond reasonable doubt which is required to make out a case for proved misbehavior.”
Regarding the allegation of prima facie evidence of the CJI's involvement in the conspiracy to pay bribes in the medical scam, Naidu said, “Conversations between third parties with dubious credentials, which have been excessively relied upon, cannot constitute any material evidence against the holder of the office of CJI.”
Meanwhile, following the rejection of the controversial move, Congress slammed Naidu's order as “illegal, ill-advised and hasty.” Congress' Kapil Sibal said they would challenge the order in the Supreme Court. He said CJI Misra should not involve himself in the “listing and hearing” petition against Naidu's order. BJP applauded Naidu and slammed Congress for its “intimidatory tactics”. Party president Amit Shah launched a scathing attack on the move and called it a “despicable attempt” to weaken the country's democratic institutions.
