April 23, 2024

The Congress has withdrawn its petition challenging Vice President Venkaiah Naidu’s dismissal of the impeachment notice against the CJI. Lawyer Kapil Sibal insisted that the court provide him with the administrative order signed by the CJI assigning the case to the five-member bench headed by Justice A K Sikri. When the court said it cannot be done and when the Attorney General K K Venugopal questioned the maintainability of the petition on the ground that why only two signatories to the impeachment notice (out of the more than 60 who signed it) were aggrieved by Naidu’s order, Sibal abruptly withdrew the petition. The bench then dismissed the petition as withdrawn.

The Congress is playing a very dirty game. It had first lured the opposition into signing an improper impeachment notice that was based on innuendos and conjectures. It tried to jump into an internal conflict in the Supreme Court that could have well been handled by the judiciary itself. Some enlightened members of the party itself (like Manmohan Singh and Salman Khurshid) as well some opposition parties refrained from signing the said politically-motivated notice. Then, none of the opposition parties became a part of the petition filed in the apex court as they became aware of the Congress game. Finally, Sibal tried to file the petition in the court of Justice J Chelameswar in order to divide the judiciary, but the judge displayed immense sagacity in not being drawn into political machinations. In the end, Sibal withdrew the petition when none of his tricks worked.

The original intention behind the impeachment notice, as well as the petition challenging its dismissal, was to protect the judiciary from alleged bias. But the way Congress has gone about the task shows that it was nothing but a way to target the government. It is sad that the Congress tried to use the judiciary to serve its political purpose. It just goes on to show that the party will stoop to any level. It is hoped that the party has learnt its lesson and will refrain from poking its nose in the affairs of the judiciary.