Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday rejected the Congress-led opposition’s notice for impeachment of Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
The decision was taken before the Supreme Court began its proceedings for the day.
While reviewing the notice, Rajya Sabha officials had mentioned that making public the contents of a notice before it is admitted by the Chair, is in violation of parliamentary rules, informed sources said.
According to the provisions in the handbook for Rajya Sabha members, no advance publicity should be given to any notice to be taken up in the House till it is admitted by the Chairman.
The Chairman in the morning held detailed consultations with the legal and constitutional experts on the impeachment notice moved by the Congress and six other opposition parties.
He had cut short his visit to Hyderabad and reached Delhi on Sunday as some of the experts he wanted to consult conveyed their availability of Sunday.
Among those consulted by the Chairman, included K.K. Venugopal and and his predecessor K. Parasaran.
He also spoke to former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap, former Law Secretary P.K. Malhotra and former Legislative Secretary Sanjay Singh.
Former Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha V.K. Agnihotri was also consulted.
Apart from this, Naidu also held deliberations with senior officials of the Rajya Sabha. He also spoke to former Supreme Court judge B.S. Sudarshan Reddy.
The Congress had on Sunday appealed that the Chief Justice should himself consider recusal from judicial administrative work. It said the decision should come “voluntarily” following notice for his removal.
The impeachment notice was given by Congress and six other opposition parties on Friday for the removal of Chief Justice Misra on five grounds of “misbehaviour”.
The motion was signed by 71 parliamentarians out of which seven members had retired before the motion was submitted to Naidu.
(IANS)
