Top two judges ask CJI Dipak Misra to call full court to discuss SC ‘future’

New Delhi: Days after seven Opposition parties led by the Congress met Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and handed over a notice seeking the impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, two top court judges have asked the CJI to call a “full court” to discuss the “future” of the Supreme Court.
The opposition parties, led by the Congress, initiated the unprecedented step to impeach the CJI by moving the notice levelling charges against him.
In a brief two-sentence letter, Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur demanded that the CJI call a “full court” to discuss “institutional issues” and the “future” of the court, according to The Indian Express report.
Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had earlier on Monday rejected the notice to impeach the CJI citing lack of substantial merit in it.
Naidu said in an order on Sunday that he had detailed personal conversation on all the aspects arising from the notice and had considered each of the allegations made in it individually as well as collectively.
The Rajya Sabha chairman said that after having perused annexures to the motion, detailed consultations and studied opinions of constitutional experts, he was “satisfied that admission of this Notice of Motion is neither desirable nor proper”.
Following the decision, the Congress is likely to move the Supreme Court against the order.
Earlier on March 21, Senior-most Supreme Court judge, Justice J Chelameswar, had shot off a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) asking him to consider convening a full court to take up the issue of alleged executive interference in judiciary.
Justice Chelameswar, in his letter written on March 21, cautioned that “the bonhomie between the judiciary and the government in any state sounds the death knell to democracy”.
In April, top judge Justice Kurian Joseph had written to the CJI asking him to set up a seven-member bench of senior judges to take up the issue of the government sitting on the Collegium recommendation to appoint Justice K M Joseph and Indu Malhotra to the apex court.