Rajya Sabha says big 'aye' to judge Sen's impeachment
18 Aug 2011
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The Rajya Sabha today passed a motion to impeach Soumitra Sen, a judge of the Calcutta High Court, by an overwhelming majority of 172 votes.
Of the 207 members present in the house, 189 voted in favour of the motion, while 17 voted against it. One MP abstained.
Now, the impeachment will be put for vote before the Lok Sabha within a week; or at least before the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament ends, under Constitutional rules.
The lower house's endorsement of the impeachment is almost a foregone conclusion; after which the President of India will sign Sen's dismissal letter.
The debate at the impromptu bar set up in the upper house was resumed earlier today by leader of the opposition in the house Arun Jaitley, who called it a case of proven misconduct.
"I concluded yesterday and am repeating that I support Sitaram Yechury's [Communist Party-Marxist leader] motion that this is a fit case of proven misconduct where the judge concerned must be removed from office; and an address to the President should be so recommended by the House," Jaitley said.
The motion, moved on Wednesday by Yechury, seeks Sen's removal for misappropriation of large sums of money which he received in his capacity as receiver appointed by the Calcutta High Court and through misrepresentation of facts.
Although the first in the history of the Rajya Sabha, Sen is the second judge to face impeachment proceedings in Parliament after V Ramaswami, former chief justice of the Punjab the and Haryana High Court who was later elevated to the Supreme Court.
In May 1993, Ramaswami faced impeachment proceedings in the Lok Sabha for unbecoming conduct. However, the motion against him fell through as the ruling Congress Party abstained from voting.
A three-member committee constituted by Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari had earlier found the charges of financial irregularities against Sen valid. He is accused of misappropriating over Rs33 lakh in the 1990s when he was a lawyer and was appointed a receiver by the high court.
Sen in his earlier arguments before the house had claimed he was being victimised and was made a "sacrificial lamb" to showcase a cleansing of the judiciary.
Sen argued that the allegations of misconduct and misappropriation of money against him were part of a pre-determined move by higher-ups in the judiciary, particularly by K G Balakrishnan, former Chief Justice of India and now the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission.
Balakrishnan himself continues to hold office under a cloud of corruption allegations.
Sen said Balakrishnan had already presumed him guilty when he ordered an in-house committee of judges to probe the allegations against him.
He also mentioned how two of the three judges on the committee that had pronounced him guilty were later elevated to the Supreme Court.
However, Jaitley later made an equally forceful speech for the prosecution, which seemed to demolish Sen's defence. Among other things, he said the facts in the case are not as complex as Sen made them out to be; and Sen had clearly defalcated public money.
Of the 207 members present in the house, 189 voted in favour of the motion, while 17 voted against it. One MP abstained.
Now, the impeachment will be put for vote before the Lok Sabha within a week; or at least before the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament ends, under Constitutional rules.
The lower house's endorsement of the impeachment is almost a foregone conclusion; after which the President of India will sign Sen's dismissal letter.
The debate at the impromptu bar set up in the upper house was resumed earlier today by leader of the opposition in the house Arun Jaitley, who called it a case of proven misconduct.
"I concluded yesterday and am repeating that I support Sitaram Yechury's [Communist Party-Marxist leader] motion that this is a fit case of proven misconduct where the judge concerned must be removed from office; and an address to the President should be so recommended by the House," Jaitley said.
The motion, moved on Wednesday by Yechury, seeks Sen's removal for misappropriation of large sums of money which he received in his capacity as receiver appointed by the Calcutta High Court and through misrepresentation of facts.
Although the first in the history of the Rajya Sabha, Sen is the second judge to face impeachment proceedings in Parliament after V Ramaswami, former chief justice of the Punjab the and Haryana High Court who was later elevated to the Supreme Court.
In May 1993, Ramaswami faced impeachment proceedings in the Lok Sabha for unbecoming conduct. However, the motion against him fell through as the ruling Congress Party abstained from voting.
A three-member committee constituted by Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari had earlier found the charges of financial irregularities against Sen valid. He is accused of misappropriating over Rs33 lakh in the 1990s when he was a lawyer and was appointed a receiver by the high court.
Sen in his earlier arguments before the house had claimed he was being victimised and was made a "sacrificial lamb" to showcase a cleansing of the judiciary.
Sen argued that the allegations of misconduct and misappropriation of money against him were part of a pre-determined move by higher-ups in the judiciary, particularly by K G Balakrishnan, former Chief Justice of India and now the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission.
Balakrishnan himself continues to hold office under a cloud of corruption allegations.
Sen said Balakrishnan had already presumed him guilty when he ordered an in-house committee of judges to probe the allegations against him.
He also mentioned how two of the three judges on the committee that had pronounced him guilty were later elevated to the Supreme Court.
However, Jaitley later made an equally forceful speech for the prosecution, which seemed to demolish Sen's defence. Among other things, he said the facts in the case are not as complex as Sen made them out to be; and Sen had clearly defalcated public money.
