New Delhi, Apr 23: Vice president and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday rejected the Congress-led opposition parties’ notice to impeach Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra.
Naidu set in motion the process of consultation on the impeachment notice against Chief Justice Dipak Misra and held discussions with constitutional and legal experts.
The vice president also cut short his visit to Hyderabad and reached New Delhi to hold deliberations over the notice given by the seven opposition parties.
As many as 64 Parliamentarians (MPs) belonging to seven political parties signed the notice for impeachment proceedings against the CJI. They include MPs from the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Muslim League.
The opposition parties, led by the Congress, initiated the unprecedented step to impeach the CJI by moving the notice levelling charges against him.
The parties had briefed the media after handing over the notice to the Upper House chairman.
While reviewing the notice, the Rajya Sabha officials had mentioned that making public the contents of a notice before it is admitted by the chair is in violation of parliamentary rules.
According to the provisions in the handbook for Rajya Sabha members, no advance publicity should be given to any notice to be taken up in the House till it is admitted by the chairman.
The move to propose impeachment notice against the CJI has led to a slugfest between the Congress and the BJP.
Meanwhile, the Congress said that the CJI should considering keeping himself from judicial and administrative duties until his name is cleared.
The BJP has said the Congress was trying to demean, degrade and denigrate the judiciary by moving the notice.