Impeachment notice a 'revenge petition', says FM Jaitley

Alleging the Congress of using impeachment as a political tool, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday termed its notice to remove Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra a "revenge petition" after the Supreme Court's judgment "exposed" the conspiracy of falsehood in the Judge Loya’s death case.

"My preliminary reaction to the impeachment motion filed today is clear. It is a revenge petition after the falsehood of the Congress party has been established in the Justice Loya death case. It is an attempt to intimidate a Judge and send a message to other Judges, that if you don't agree with us, fifty MP's are enough for a revenge action,” Jaitley said in a Facebook post.

In the Facebook post titled 'Judge Loya Death Case: The One That Almost Created a Judicial Mutiny’, Jaitley also said BJP president Amit Shah had "no role" in the Sohrabuddin case which was an alleged encounter executed by some central agencies through the State Police.

Congress and six other opposition parties, in the day, had moved a notice for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India, accusing him of five counts of "misbehaviour" and "misusing" authority.

The opposition parties met Vice-President and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and handed over a notice for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) with signatures of 64 MPs of the Upper House.

Observing that impeachment of a Judge of the Supreme Court is to be done only in the case of either his “incapacity” or on “proven misconduct”, Jaitley said the Congress party and its friends have started using impeachment as a "political tool".

"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.