The process of removal of Justice Yashwant Varma will be set in motion in the Lok Sabha soon with Speaker Om Birla expected to soon announce the constitution of a statutory committee to investigate the grounds on which the removal of the judge is sought, The Indian Expres has learned.
Birla and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh met Wednesday with Secretaries General of both the Houses and the officials discussed the modalities to finalise the procedure. Union Home Minister Amit Shah also joined the meeting later.
The discussions took place on a day the Supreme Court said it will set up a bench to hear Justice Varma’s plea challenging the legal validity of the in-house inquiry committee which confirmed charges of recovery of unaccounted cash from his official residence in Delhi.
This comes in the shadow of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s surprise resignation Monday evening and, as The Indian Express reported Tuesday, hours after his decision to accept the Opposition’s notice on Justice Varma had rubbed the government the wrong way.
This had created “confusion,” government sources said, because Birla had received a similar notice from Lok Sabha MPs with 145 signatures around 12.30 pm Monday, hours before Dhankhar made the reference to the Opposition notice in the Rajya Sabha.
“The Speaker received the notices from the Lok Sabha MPs and he had told us that he would constitute a committee. That’s what the law says,” said a senior BJP MP who was part of the group that submitted the notice.
BJP sources said that Dhankhar, who resigned as vice president and Rajya Sabha chairman, did not “admit” the Opposition’s notice. Pointing out that 63 Rajya Sabha MPs, from various Opposition parties, gave a notice for the removal of Justice Varma, Dhankhar did mention on Monday that it met the “numerical requirement of signing” by MPs for “setting in motion a process of removal of a High Court judge. But he added that according to the Judges (Inquiry) Act, when notices of a motion are submitted on the same day in both the Houses of Parliament, a committee to examine the charges levelled against the judge will be constituted by the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman.”
Former Lok Sabha Secretary PDT Achary said that when the Speaker received the notice from Lok Sabha MPs, the process of removal was set in motion. “The Speaker has to admit it. Then the Speaker will appoint a statutory committee, the Speaker does not have to bring it before the House. Because the House has no role at that stage,” Achary said.
According to Achary, Dhankhar did not seem to have admitted the motion.
“The Rajya Sabha Chairman has to admit the motion and then if simultaneously moved in both the Houses, the presiding officers would together constitute the statutory committee. But Dhankhar just mentioned about the notice in the House on Monday, he had to admit it as per the law, which perhaps has not taken place,” Achary added.
However, a senior minister said that the Rajya Sabha chair, now deputy chairman Harivansh officiating as chairman, would be consulted for the constitution of the committee because Dhankhar had mentioned it being in the chair.
Sources said the statutory committee – with one judge of the Supreme Court, one from the High Courts, and a distinguished jurist – will be announced soon. The committee will probe the charges against Justice Varma and submit a report to the Lok Sabha Speaker. If the committee finds him guilty, a motion will be taken up in the Lok Sabha and it will be discussed in detail. The motion will be put to vote and it requires a two-third majority to be passed. Once the process is over the same, will be repeated in the Rajya Sabha.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Wednesday said it would constitute a bench to hear Justice Varma’s plea seeking to invalidate a report by an in-house inquiry panel, which found him guilty of misconduct in the cash discovery row. Justice Varma has also sought quashing of the May 8 recommendation by then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna urging Parliament to initiate impeachment against him.
Justice Varma also challenged the conclusions of the report by the three-member in-house judicial panel. The three-judge panel, headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, conducted the inquiry for 10 days, examined 55 witnesses and visited the scene of the fire that started at around 11.35 pm on March 14 at the official residence of Justice Varma, then a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court and now in the Allahabad High Court.
Acting on the report, then CJI Khanna wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommending the judge’s impeachment.