SYLLABUS

GS 2: Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Context: Recently, Justice Yashwant Varma of the Allahabad High Court tendered his resignation to President Draupadi Murmu with immediate effect at a critical stage when Parliamentary removal proceedings were underway.

More on News:

• This marks the third instance in independent India where a High Court judge has resigned during impeachment related proceedings to avoid their conclusion. 

Constitutional Provision for High Courts

• Article 214: High Courts for states  

• Article 215: High Courts to be courts of record

• Article 216: Constitution of High Courts

• Article 217: Appointment and conditions of the office of a Judge of a High Court

• Article 218: Application of certain provisions relating to Supreme Court to High Courts

• Article 222: Transfer of a judge from one High Court to another

• Each such resignation has exposed the same constitutional lacuna without prompting any legislative remedy so far.

• While the constitution does not use the word ‘impeachment’, it is colloquially used to refer to the proceedings under Article 124 (for the removal of a Supreme Court judge) and Article 218 (for the removal of a high court judge).

• Notable Impeachment Attempts in India: 

• Justice V. Ramaswami (1993): First SC judge to face impeachment; panel found misuse of funds, but motion failed in Lok Sabha due to abstentions. 
• Justice Soumitra Sen (2011): Accused of fund misappropriation; Rajya Sabha passed motion, but he resigned before Lok Sabha consideration.

• No judge in India has been successfully impeached since independence. 

Backgound and Timeline

• Incident and initial developments: A firefighting operation at Justice Varma’s official residence in Delhi led to the discovery of sacks of charred cash while he was serving as a judge of the Delhi High Court.

• He denied ownership and called the storeroom a general dumping area, after which he was transferred to the Allahabad High Court.

• In-house inquiry by judiciary: Then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna set up a three member in house committee comprising Justice Sheel Nagu, Justice G S Sandhawalia and Justice Anu Sivaraman.

• The committee’s 64 page report found strong inferential evidence of his tacit or active control over the storeroom and recommended removal proceedings.

• Judicial and constitutional process: The Chief Justice of India recommended removal to the President and Prime Minister after he refused to resign.

• Justice Varma challenged the in house procedure in the Supreme Court but the petition was dismissed stating the Chief Justice of India is not a mere post office between the committee and the President.
• His challenge to the Speaker’s decision to admit a removal motion was also dismissed

• Parliamentary inquiry: A three member inquiry committee was constituted under the Judges Inquiry Act 1968 by Speaker Om Birla. 

• The committee continued its proceedings with a change in membership after retirement of one member.

How a Sitting Judge Can Be Removed From Office?

• The constitution provides that a judge can be removed only by an order of the president, based on a motion passed by both houses of parliament.

• The procedure for removal of judges is elaborated in the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968. The Act sets out the following steps for removal from office:

Source:
The Hindu
Scobserver
PRS India