Congress MPs withdraw SC plea challenging rejection of CJI impeachment notice

Two Congress Rajya Sabha MPs Pratap Singh Bajwa and Amee Yajnik on Tuesday withdrew their plea challenging rejection of the impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra by Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

After a 45-minute hearing, a five-judge bench headed by Justice AK Sikri declared the petition as dismissed as withdrawn.

On May 7, Bajwa and Yajnik had moved the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of the impeachment notice by Naidu, on the grounds that there was "no proved misbehaviour".

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is also one of the signatories of the impeachment notice, had mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar. The bench, also comprising Justice SK Kaul, asked Sibal and advocate Prashant Bhushan to mention the matter before the CJI for urgent listing, citing a Constitution bench judgment on powers of master of roster.

A five-judge constitution bench in the Supreme Court was then constituted by the CJI to hear the matter today. Significantly, the matter was not been listed before the judges who are number two to five in the seniority. These judges—Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph—had held a press conference on January 12 in which they had virtually revolted against the CJI by raising concerns about the independence of the judiciary.

Kapil Sibal, senior lawyer representing the MPs, is expected to brief media shortly.

With PTI inputs.