Mamata dubs impeachment move ‘wrong’; Jaitley slams ‘misconceived’ motion

New Delhi/Kolkata, April 24

As Congress geared up to approach the Supreme Court against rejection of its notice to impeach CJI Dipak Misra, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday criticised the impeachment bid as “wrong” and said she had cautioned Sonia and Rahul Gandhi against the move.

Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Arun Jaitley said it would be “suicidal” for the Congress to challenge the decision by Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu, who defended his stand saying it was “timely and not hasty” as proper due diligence was done.

While West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee said her party did not support the impeachment move as it did not want to interfere in the judiciary, Jaitley said Parliament is supreme in its own jurisdiction and its process cannot be subjected to a judicial review.

“We will move the Supreme Court against the rejection of our notice, but it will take some time,” senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said to a question on when his party will approach the apex court.

The Congress had on Monday lashed out at Naidu for rejecting the impeachment notice filed by seven Opposition parties, including it, and had said it would move the court to challenge what it called was an “illegal order”.

In Kolkata, Banerjee said the Congress wanted support of her party on the impeachment move but she did not approve of it.

“The Congress was wrong to give impeachment notice against the CJI. The Congress wanted us to support it. But we did not,” she told a news channel.

“I told Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi not to go for impeachment,” Banerjee said.

In the National Capital, Jaitley wrote his second Facebook post within a week on the issue of impeachment, saying it would be “a suicidal future move” by Congress to challenge Naidu’s decision.

Jaitley said the Chairman of Rajya Sabha or Speaker of Lok Sabha has the sole discretion whether to admit the motion or to decline to do so.

“The power to admit or to decline a motion is part of the legislative process of Parliament,” he said.

Jaitley, himself a renowned lawyer, said that a very large number of eminent lawyers are now Members of Parliament and most political parties have given nominations to some of them since their value, both in court and Parliamentary debates, is significant.

“The incidental impact of this has been a growing tendency of lawyer members to drag intra-court disputes into the parliamentary process. The misconceived motion for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India is just one example of this,” said, Jaitley, who is also Leader of the Rajya Sabha.

Jaitley said it was clear that the impeachment motion would never get support of two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament and the Congress Party also knew this.

“Its object was not the passage of the motion but intimidation of India’s judiciary,” the Finance Minister said.

Meanwhile, Naidu told a group of lawyers that he has “done the just thing in the best possible manner” expected of him on the impeachment issue, according to sources.

His order, which came within two days of the impeachment notice being submitted to him, was slammed as “hasty, illegal and ill-informed” by the Congress.

Naidu said his decision was in strict conformity with the provisions of the Constitution and the Judges (Inquiry) Act of 1968. PTI