President accepts Justice Sen's resignation

New Delhi: Government on Sunday took the unusual step of notifying the resignation of Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court, strengthening speculation that the proceedings against him in the Lok Sabha scheduled for Monday may be dropped, but there was no official confirmation of such a move.

Earlier in the day, Sen's brief resignation letter, written and signed in his own hand — a prerequisite as per the Constitution, was hand-delivered by his lawyer, who handed it over to the President secretary.

The predominant legal view is that the proceedings in the Lower House have been rendered infructuous by the judge's resignation but some voices in the political spectrum still favour going ahead with the process. In the normal course, such a notification is not required since the resignation of a constitutional authority is deemed to be accepted if it is in order.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar will take the final call on whether to carry out proceedings against Sen in Lok Sabha or not. The Speaker will decide on Monday morning after consulting all parties, according to sources.

The talk in political circles was that the proceedings may not take place in the Lok Sabha on Monday but there was no official word on it.

The sources maintained that the Justice Sen's resignation, received by the President's office was in order. This means a cautious approach was being maintained on the issue as the judge's initial resignation sent by fax had created a piquant situation.

As yet there has been no change in the List of Business of the Lok Sabha for on Monday where the motion is still on the agenda.

Sources have also said that Attorney General GE Vahanvati had advised that the proceedings should continue in Lok Sabha.

On August 18, the Rajya Sabha had by a huge margin approved the motion of his removal on the charges of misappropriation of funds when he was a lawyer.

But he claimed that he was innocent, and was made a sacrificial lamb to cleanse the judiciary.

In his letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Justice Sen had said that no one either from the Bar or from the Civil Society has raised any complaint regarding his integrity honesty and competence regarding discharging judicial functions.

"There is no complaint against me even today regarding my conduct as a Judge while discharging my judicial functions or my conduct as a judge outside the Court," said Justice Sen in his letter.

"I am not guilty of any form of corruption, there is no allegation against me that I am guilty of passing any order or judgment for extraneous consideration or that I have abused my power in any way so that my family or relatives or acquaintances have amassed wealth," Justice Sen in his letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker said.

Charges against Justice Sen:

Justice Sen is guilty of misappropriating sale proceeds to the tune of Rs 24 lakh in a case in 1984 where he was appointed as receiver by the Calcutta High Court. He was an advocate at that time. He was later directed to deposit Rs 52 lakh by the High Court. He had allegedly unauthorisedly taken out Rs 25 lakh from another account and invested it elsewhere.

On December 3, 2003 he was appointed to the Calcutta High Court as a judge.

He had later paid back the money but in-house committee in its February 6, 2008 report had found him guilty of "breach of trust and misappropriation of receiver's funds for his personal gain".

On March 16, 2008 the Supreme Court Collegium gave a personal hearing to Justice Sen and advised him to resign or take voluntary retirement. But Justice Sen failed to comply.

The then Chief Justice of India of India KG Balakrishnan had written to the Prime Minister on August 4, 2008 suggesting the Justice Sen be removed.

The motion to remove was pending against Justice Sen since February 2010. A three-member committee headed Supreme Court judge Justice B Sudershan Reddy in its report of September 2010 found Justice Sen "guilty of misbehaviour".

The Justice Reddy Committee found Justice Sen guilty of collecting Rs 33,22,800 from a purchaser of goods, keeping it in a savings bank account and misrepresenting facts to the High Court.

The report was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on November 10, 2010.

With Additional Inputs From PTI

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