Justice M.Yusuf Eqbal handing over a memento to K. Parasaran, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India. (TOI fi... Read More

NEW DELHI: Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP K Parasaran, who was attorney general during successive Congress governments headed by Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi , on Monday said Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu ’s order rejecting the removal motion against CJI Dipak Misra was legally barred from being challenged in Supreme Court .

In a signed note given exclusively to TOI, nonagenarian Parasaran said the Lok Sabha speaker or Rajya Sabha chairman, on receipt of notice for removal motion against a judge, may consult such persons and material as may be available to him and take a decision either to admit or refuse the motion. Both decisions, to admit or reject, cannot be questioned in the SC, he said.

“It is entirely within the jurisdiction of the speaker/chairman to decide to choose to act on the accusations made in the notice by the required number of MPs to decide whether the accusations require investigation.

If he forms an opinion that no prima facie case for investigation is made out and the accusation does not require to be investigated and, accordingly, decides not to act on the notice given and rejects the same, there the mater would end,” he said.

Parasaran, who was attorney general from August 9, 1983, to December 8, 1989, cited an August 27, 1992, judgment given by a fivejudge constitution bench led by Justice J S Verma, which said, “On initiation of the process in the prescribed manner, the speaker/chairman is to decide whether the accusation requires investigation.

If he chooses not to act on the accusation made in the form of motion by the specified minimum number of Members of Parliament, the matter ends there.”

Parasaran discussed the cumbersome procedure provided in the Constitution for removal of a judge and said, “Checks and safeguards provided in the matter are steps in aid of the SC, which itself is the highest institutional protection for citizens. It is entirely for the speaker/chairman to come to the conclusion to either admit or reject the motion.

If he arrives at a decision to so reject the notice of motion, the matter ends there.” The President had nominated Parasaran as a member of Rajya Sabha in 2012 when UPA was in power.

