Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 5 (IANS) Controversial Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court will not be impeached by the Lok Sabha, a top government source said Monday.

“There will be no impeachment motion (against him),” the source told IANS.

The Lok Sabha had listed the impeachment motion to remove the tainted judge in Monday’s business.

Since early morning, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar held consultations with ministers and leaders of various political parties on the issue after Justice Sen submitted his resignation to President Pratibha Patil. The hand-written resignation was found valid.

This led to uncertainty over the issue amid speculation that the motion may be dropped.

The resignation has led to a dominant view within the government and political parties that having the judge impeached by the Lok Sabha was now infructuous.

But there were some voices, particularly in some political parties, that the house should go ahead with the proceedings.

The Rajya Sabha Aug 18 adopted an impeachment motion for removal of Justice Sen with 189 members voting in favour and 16 against.

Justice Sen is the first judge against whom any of the two houses of parliament has passed an impeachment motion. The first such attempt to impeach a judge was against Justice V. Ramaswami of the Supreme Court in 1993, but the motion to remove him fell through in the Lok Sabha as the ruling Congress abstained.

A three-member committee constituted by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari found the charges of financial irregularities against Sen to be correct.

Justice Sen, then an advocate, was held guilty of misappropriating Rs.33.23 lakh in a 1983 case when he was appointed a receiver by the high court.