In a first, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday a petition by two Congress MPs challenging the dismissal of removal motion against the Chief Justice of India by the Rajya Sabha Chairman on April 23.
The bench doesn’t have any of the four senior most judges who have raised a banner of revolt against the CJI Dipak Misra on the issue of listing of politically sensitive cases before ‘select’ benches.
Instead, the Constitution bench is headed by Justice AK Sikri, who is placed in the seniority list just below the five senior most judges forming the Collegium, and will comprise of four other judges next in seniority to him, namely Justices Sharad Arvind Bobde, NV Ramana, Arun Mishra and Adarsh K Goel.
This is the first time that a petition has been filed challenging the rejection of removal motion by Rajya Sabha Chairman. Also, it is the first time ever a removal motion was moved against a CJI that came to be dismissed.
The non-inclusion of the four senior most judges is said to be not without reason. They had held an unprecedented press conference against the CJI on January 12 this year due to which their inclusion in the bench will not appear to be fair.
Earlier in the day, the petition filed by the two MPs — Pratap Singh Bajwa from Punjab and Amee Harshadray Yagnik from Gujarat-was mentioned by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Prashant Bhushan before a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar, the senior most judge in SC after the CJI.
Sibal, who himself signed on the motion moved by 64 Opposition Members of Parliament (MP) to remove the CJI, requested a bench of Justices Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul to list the petition urgently as SC Registry was not accepting its request. Moreover, he could not approach the CJI complaining about Registry’s action as he is disabled to hear a case against him.
Justice Chelameswar told Sibal that following a recent Constitution Bench decision, CJI is the master of roster and he alone has the power to list any case. Moreover, he reminded Sibal that he was on the verge of retirement. But considering the peculiar situation, the bench told Sibal that it will take a decision by Tuesday. By late Monday evening, the list of Court business for Tuesday reflected the case as listed at 10.30 am before a Constitution Bench headed by Justice Sikri.
The petition found fault with the manner in which RS Chairman Venkaiah Naidu disposed the motion hurriedly under the belief that he has powers to adjudicate on admitting a motion. It was argued that the legislative does not contemplate so under the Judges Inquiry Act as otherwise this will essentially become a two-step adjudicatory process. Moreover, Sibal contended that whether or not there exists evidence to make out a prima facie case is not the job of the Chairman but that of an Inquiry Committee that goes into each allegation.