The crisis in judiciary has spilled over to the political arena.
After a move to initiate an impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was taken up, the BJP came down heavily on the Congress-led opposition. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley accused them of using the impeachment as a political tool, and termed the move as revenge petition.
Writing a blog, Jaitley said, “A reading of the Supreme Court judgement (in the Judge Loya case) exposes every fact of the conspiracy to generate falsehood as propaganda in the public and political space.” He even termed those seeking a probe into the case, including “political parties, a few retired judges and some senior lawyers as 'conspirators'.”
Going a step ahead, he even questioned the four Supreme Court judges, who had held a press conference in January last, flagging several issues, including the Judge Loya death case. “The four judges of the Supreme Court who held the controversial press conference, are all experienced judges and in my view men of high integrity. Had they checked up the facts of Judge Loya case before commenting on it, even though only on a listing issue?”
“Should anyone at all be commenting on a pending case because many comments created an environment of prejudice and even added credibility to utter falsehood as they did in the present case?” Jaitley wrote.
The senior BJP leader questioned if the impeachment motion filed on Friday was a direct result of the press conference. “Does this impeachment set a precedent that political parties in India will use impeachment as an instrument to intimidate judges hearing controversial matters?” he added.
Jaitley, a former lawyer, put out the blog in public domain within a few hours of the opposition parties submitting an impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of India to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
“The Congress party and its friends have started using impeachment as a political tool. Impeachment is a process by which you remove the holder of office in order to protect the dignity of an office... Trivialising the use of that power is a dangerous event.”
“It is not difficult to collect fifty signatures of Rajya Sabha or hundred signatures of Lok Sabha members even on frivolous issues. To use the power as intimidatory tactics when neither you have a case of “proven misconduct” or the numbers on your side, is a serious threat to judicial independence,” Jaitley said.
“It is a revenge petition after the falsehood of the Congress party has been established in the Justice Loya death case,” the finance minister argued, referring to the impeachment motion.
He derided the “crusading lawyers” who pick up causes in public interest and called them “institution disruptors”. “They pick up even false causes and pursue the falsehood with a sense of deep commitment, indulge in intimidating advocacy, are shrill with their opposing colleagues, are rude and impolite with the judges,” he alleged.
Referring to the “alleged role of Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin case”, Jaitley said Shah had no role. “It was an alleged encounter executed by some central agencies through the state police. I had written a detailed letter on September 27, 2013 to the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh giving out all these facts in detail.” The evidence submitted was very weak, so it could not stand judicial scrutiny, Jaitley said.