Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Monday decided not to proceed with the motion to remove Calcutta High Court judge Justice Soumitra Sen as he had already resigned. The decision not to go ahead with the removal motion of Justice Sen was taken after Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar held consultations with the representatives of government and political parties on the issue.
The proceedings, listed for the afternoon, were dropped by taking sense of the House after Law Minister Salman Khurshid informed the Lok Sabha about Justice Sen's resignation.
The House was to take up removal proceedings against Sen for "misconduct" and "misappropriation of funds" in the capacity of a Calcutta High Court receiver.
As the House met 2:00 PM when the proceedings were scheduled to be taken up, Khurshid made a brief statement saying that Justice Sen had resigned with effect from September 1.
"I have to bring it to the notice of the Speaker and this House that Justice Soumitra Sen, judge of the Calcutta High Court has resigned from office under Proviso 1(a) of Article 217 of the Constitution," Khurshid said.
Speaker Meira Kumar then sought the sense of the House to drop the proceedings against Justice Sen. "Is it the sense of the House that we may not proceed with agenda item no. 12," she asked.
Members responded by saying 'yes' prompting her to say that the "House agrees".
Justice Sen had resigned from the High Court on Thursday and faxed the letter to President Pratibha Patil. The President on Saturday accepted the resignation letter and forwarded it to the Law Ministry for action after a lawyer on behalf of Justice Sen handed over the resignation letter to her on Saturday morning as the letter faxed to the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday was not found to be in order.
By resigning Justice Sen has saved himself from the ignominy of being the first judge to be removed by Parliament and also ensured that he will get the pension benefits.
Justice Sen (53) was found guilty of misappropriating Rs 33.23 lakh under his custody as a court-appointed receiver in the capacity as a lawyer, and misrepresenting facts before a Calcutta court in a 1983 case.
The motion of removal against Justice Sen was passed with an overwhelming majority by the Rajya Sabha on August 18.
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