VP Naidu rejects opposition's impeachment motion against CJI Misra; Congress' Singhvi says expected

In a tweet, Singhvi said: "Expectedly, Sh Naidu rejected imp’ment motion. Unexpectedly, he did so within one day of returning from outstn. Hopefully, the alacrity was not intended to render infructuous calls for CJI to stop Admn work."

Naidu earlier consulted legal experts on whether the opposition's notice for impeachment of Misra will be accepted or rejected.

As the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, he is the only person to decide on the issue.

Sources earlier told NDTV that he has already spoken to Attorney General KK Venugopal, former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy, Subhash Kashyap, former Secretary General of the Lok Sabha, former Law Secretary PK Malhotra, former legislative secretary Sanjay Singh, and senior officials of the Rajya Sabha secretariat.

Leaders of seven opposition parties on Friday submitted a notice for the impeachment of Misra to Naidu, reports said.

The move by the opposition came in the wake of the Supreme Court (SC) judgment on Thursday, which dismissed the demand for an investigation into the death of CBI judge BH Loya.

As many as 64 members of the Rajya Sabha, belonging to seven political parties signed the notice for impeachment proceedings against the CJI.

The MPs are from Congress, NCP, CPI-M, CPI, SP, BSP and Muslim League.

The notice mentioned five grounds of misbehaviour for the CJI's impeachment.

The impeachment move has its genesis in the public complaint made by four senior judges of the top court- Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph-  that cases with far reaching consequences were assigned to selective judges.

Justice Chelameswar, who represented the four judges in an unprecedented press conference, said they had approached the CJI with a letter but failed to convince him.