The impeachment move

Witnessing developments of ongoing internal tussle in the Supreme Court, few people in the country would have predicted the denouement in the form of an unparalleled impeachment move against the Chief Justice of India (CJI). Circumstances have evolved in a way to leave the common citizens in despair and disillusionment. Chinks in the higher judiciary were suspected. But they spilled out with a first-ever press conference by the top four judges of the Supreme Court in which they levelled allegations against CJI Dipak Misra. But the differences over the roster were public knowledge two months earlier when a two-judge Bench’s reference to a Constitution Bench was overturned by another Constitution Bench headed by CJI Misra himself.

It defies reason why the Supreme Court, the repository of wisdom and the last court of appeal for reconciliation, did not apply some of the remedies it so liberally dispenses on the litigants. To be fair, there were some attempts for a patch up. But as Justice J Chelameswar noted at the January 12 press conference, the four judges were compelled to expose the apex court’s dirty linen after failing to talk the CJI into putting measures to check the “less than desirable” things that had happened in the Supreme Court.

It was little surprise that the extremely divided and polarised polity was bound to take sides. They got more than half an opportunity because the lordships showed a sharp decline in rectitude they are expected to bring to office. Once the judiciary let go of the precedents, rules and conventions that circumvented its institutional behaviour, the field was open for the dispute to move into the political domain. With the intensification of political mudslinging, the citizens’ confidence in the judiciary is bound to be further affected. In India, impeachment of a judge has not happened and is still long odds in this case too, but the very fact that the controversy swirls around the CJI does not bode well for the judiciary, a critical pillar of our constitutional democracy. Regardless of their party affiliations, every citizen would be nurturing a similar sentiment the Opposition noted, “We wish this day had never come”.