Click to play videoAs many as 76 Rajya Sabha members of Opposition parties on Monday submitted a petition to Upper House Chairman Hamid Ansari for impeaching Justice P D Dinakaran, the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court accused of land-grabbing and amassing wealth beyond his known sources of income.
Dinakaran’s promotion to the Supreme Court has been put on hold after the Central government returned the file recommending his promotion. The Supreme Court collegium is yet to take a decision on it.
In independent India, only once has an impeachment motion against a senior judge been put to vote. The motion against Supreme Court Justice V Ramaswamy in 1992-93 was defeated.
Is impeachment the only solution to curb judicial corruption? Will the BJP and Left Front cooperate with each other to impeach Justice Dinakaran?
CNN-IBN asked Congress and BJP leaders and eminent lawyers Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Arun Jaitley. Former Solicitor General Soli Sorabjee joined the debate for an apolitical opinion.
“The 76 MPs are prima facie convinced of the charges (against Dinakaran) and that is why they have signed the petition,” said Jaitley. “It is now for the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha--the Vice President--to form an opinion and admit the motion if he so thinks fit.”
The Vice President has to then set up a three-member committee to investigate the charges. “That is a constitutional process and there is no alternative process,” said Jaitley.
Singhvi denied that the Congress was dithering from joining the impeachment process against Dinakaran. “The Congress has not taken any decision. It could support the resolution (petition), it could oppose it. Indeed it could give a third option: each MP could decide on his own without a party diktat,” he said.
“You can’t have instant reactions (on this issue),” said Singhvi, who explained that the Vice President could appoint an enquiry committee and for that it doesn’t require a vote in Parliament.
Sorabjee said he felt “very sorry” that the process of impeachment had to be used against Dinakaran and that allegations of corruption have been made against a senior judge. But a simpler process to remove judges for wrongdoing is still being considered and till then impeachment was the only process.
“Dinakaran will have full opportunity to explain his stand and defend himself,” said Sorabjee.
Singhvi accepted that the process to impeach judges was “cumbersome, very protracted and very uncertain” and alternatives to it will take time.
Do the allegations against Justice Dinakaran reflect on India’s judiciary? “I think the quality of the judiciary reflects what is happening in the society. The appointment process (for the judiciary) is unable to select the best,” said Jaitley.
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