The Congress party under the ‘able’ leadership of its President Rahul Gandhi has tried time and again to target the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India (CJI) in the past few months. The Congress party and its allies have raised a hue and cry on the functioning of the judiciary in many debates, panel discussions and anywhere else they could. They have tried to make a mockery of the SC’s procedure and decisions by questioning anything which didn’t work out in their favour. They tried to target the CJI because of his decision to keep on hearing the proceedings in the Ayodhya Ram Janmbhoomi case. His decision to deliver the verdict on the Ayodhya case before 2019 further irked the Congress Party and other allied party leaders. In the latest development today the Congress Party leadership has decided to move an impeachment motion against the CJI.
On Friday the 20th of April, the opposition parties led by the Congress submitted a petition to Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu. The petition is an impeachment motion seeking the removal of CJI Dipak Misra. A Congress delegation met Rajya Sabha Chairman Naidu today following which they held a media conference. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad briefed the press on the motion mentioning that six parties have signed the motion against the CJI. The impeachment motion had been brought under Article 217 and Article 124 of the Constitution, on the grounds of ‘misbehaviour’ of CJI. 64 MPs have signed the motion which is more than the minimum required number (50) to entertain the motion in Rajya Sabha. The decision of the Congress Party to bring an impeachment motion is, however, not a unanimous one as senior party leaders such as Salman Khurshid and ex-PM Manmohan Singh have not signed the motion.
The Congress party may have the minimum numbers required to bring the impeachment motion on the floor in Rajyasabha but it simply lacks the numbers needed to pass the motion.
While the information in the foreground is that Congress and the opposition in general is not happy with the way CJI Misra is running the judiciary. The background plot is a far more sinister one. It is plainly a cheap tactic by the INC to stall the verdict on the Ram Janmbhoomi case.
CJI has also irked the opposition with his verdict on Justice Loya case, an agenda-driven manufactured outrage by the opposition. This is a big factor in opposition’s decision to intimidate the CJI with the hollow threats of impeachment.
The Congress party leadership has stretched itself to the fullest in order to vent its frustrations resulting from the lack of wins in the elections to the losses of its associates in the judiciary. All seems to be failing now for the party. A similar fate awaits this impeachment motion even if it sees the light of the day in the house. The outnumbered INC will still be deliberating about the next ploy it is going to create in order to divert the minds of the public from its many defeats.