Jethmalani firm on impeachment motion against SC judge

The row over the next Chief Justice of India's appointment has taken a serious turn with senior advocate and former Union law minister Ram Jethmalani taking a rigid stand on the issue.

Jethmalani has made it clear that nothing short of an inquiry by Chief Justice of India J S Verma into the allegations against Justice M M Punchhi would stop the Committee on Judicial Accountability from pressing for an impeachment motion against the judge.

Justice Punchhi is the country's second senior-most judge, against whom the CJA has levelled serious allegations. The timing of these allegations -- the judge is likely to get the country's top judicial job next January -- has created a storm in the legal world, and the Supreme Court Bar Association last week suspended seven CJA members, including Jethmalani, for submitting a memorandum against the judge.

''Impeachment proceedings must be preceded by a lot of homework. That homework will be that Justice Punchhi will either explain himself to his own peers, which will be enough for me, or he will have the court to institute contempt proceedings against us (the committee) or file a libel suit,'' said Jethmalani.

Asked if he had concrete evidence against the judge, Jethmalani told Home TV: ''We are totally satisfied that this is a case for inquiry, that this is a case for further investigation and that this is a case for hearing Justice Punchhi.... (We had) double-checked, triple-checked and quadruple-checked (the evidence).

''At the moment, we believe it to be true. At the moment, we believe it to be genuine. But there is always a possibility that Justice Punchhi might succeed saying that the evidence has been fabricated.''

Disclosing that the submission of the memorandum was the first stage of the impeachment proceedings, the senior lawyer said, ''I hope and pray that what we have said against him is not correct and, in that event, I will congratulate him and fight for his becoming the Chief Justice of India.''

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