New Delhi, India: The Union government is working on putting together a committee to look into claims of wrongdoing against Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma, According to the reports.
This news comes after Kiren Rijiju, the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, said on Sunday that more than 100 Members of Parliament (MPs) have already signed a petition to start impeachment proceedings against Justice Varma. The judge is now under a lot of scrutiny because burned money was found at his house.
Minister Rijiju had made it clear in his statement that the process of gathering signatures for the impeachment was “underway, and it has crossed 100 already.” When asked if Parliament would discuss the issue during the current Monsoon Session, which began on July 21, Rijiju said that the impeachment process against Justice Varma would be a joint effort by all parties, not just the government. He also said that the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) decides what is most important for parliament to do, with the Speaker’s consent. This makes it hard to set clear deadlines outside of that process.
MPs File Motion for Impeachment
On Monday, Members of Parliament sent a formal memo to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asking for the dismissal of Justice Yashwant Varma because of the cash discovery scandal. A total of 145 Lok Sabha MPs have signed the impeachment motion, which is based on Articles 124, 217, and 218 of the Constitution, which describe how judges can be removed.
The list of people who signed the motion shows that it has support from many different political parties, including the Congress, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Janata Dal (United) – JDU, the Janata Dal (Secular) – JDS, the Jan Sena Party, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas Paswan) – LJSP, the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKP), and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPM. Some of the most important people who signed are Union Ministers Anurag Singh Thakur and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, P.P. Chaudhary, Supriya Sule, and K.C. Venugopal.
The Inquiry Committee is on the way.
On Wednesday, government sources said that work is being done to form the committee that will officially look into the claims against Justice Varma. Earlier sources said that this kind of committee would probably include a current Supreme Court judge, a Chief Justice from one of the High Courts, and a well-known lawyer. This is how the process for impeaching a judge works in India: if the Speaker or Chairman agrees to the motion, a three-member inquiry committee is appointed to look into the charges.
Lawmakers filed the notifications for Justice Varma’s dismissal on the first day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament. This shows how serious and urgent they are about this issue.
There won’t be an immediate debate in Parliament over changing the way elections are held in Bihar.
Separately, amid the ongoing Monsoon Session, government sources also conveyed on Wednesday that there are currently no plans to hold a discussion in Parliament on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise being carried out by the Election Commission in Bihar. This activity, which is meant to clean up the voter registers before the next assembly elections, has recently gotten a lot of attention because of reports of problems, such as a lot of dead, permanently moved, or duplicated voters.
The Election Commission has justified the practice as necessary for fair elections, but the government doesn’t seem interested in having a parliamentary debate about it right now.