With the resignation of Justice Yashwant Verma, one more name has been added to the list of judges against whom the impeachment process was started but could not reach its conclusion. In fact, in the judicial history of the country, it has not been possible to remove even a single judge through impeachment. It is a different matter that under the pressure of this proceeding, such judges saved themselves from the stigma of being removed from the post by adopting the path of resignation.
Constitutionally, the process of removing any Supreme Court or High Court judge is quite complex. Read the constitutional process of impeachment and why the judges facing them could not be removed under it?
extremely complex impeachment process
The constitutional process of removing controversial judges of the Supreme Court and High Court through impeachment is quite complex. There is a provision under Article 124(4) of the Constitution for the Supreme Court judge and Article 217 for the High Court judge. Proven misconduct and incompetence are the two grounds on which this action is possible.
For an impeachment motion in the Lok Sabha, notice is required to be given by a minimum of 100 members and in the Rajya Sabha, it is required to be given by fifty members. Then the inquiry committee is formed with the approval of the Speaker/Chairman. There is a provision to make a judge of the Supreme Court, a Chief Justice of the High Court and an eminent jurist as members in this committee.
Justice Yashwant Verma
The 2/3 majority of those present and voting in both the houses is decisive for approving the judge’s guilty or innocent verdict in the committee’s report. After the decision of the House, judges can be removed only by the order of the President. In the world of judicial field, India’s process in the matter of removal of judges is considered to be the most difficult. Interestingly, in India, not a single case of removal of judges through impeachment has been successful so far.
This is how the first impeachment against Justice Ramaswamy failed!
Justice V. Ramaswamy faced the first impeachment proceedings in the judicial history of India when he was a judge of the Supreme Court. However, the allegations of financial irregularities against him date back to the late 1980s, when he was the Chief Justice of the Punjab-Haryana High Court. In 1991 he became a judge of the Supreme Court. Then this old complaint gained momentum.
In 199192, an impeachment motion was presented against him in the Parliament. The inquiry committee found the allegations to be largely true. On the recommendation of the committee, voting was held in the Lok Sabha in 1993 but the Congress abstained from the vote. As a result, the required 2/3 majority could not be gathered for the proposal. The proposal fell through. Justice Ramaswamy continued in his post.
Soumitra Sen resigns before voting in Lok Sabha
Kolkata High Court judge Soumitra Sen was accused of misappropriation of funds between 1993 and 2003 when he was the receiver of the court while he was a lawyer. In 2003, he became a judge of Kolkata High Court. Questions began to be raised on his honesty. In 2009, an impeachment motion was presented against him in the Rajya Sabha. After the approval of the Chairman, an inquiry committee was formed. The inquiry committee found the complaints to be true. He was found guilty. In August 2011, the Rajya Sabha accepted the impeachment motion, approving the recommendations of the committee. To complete the process, further approval of the Lok Sabha was required. By resigning before the voting in the Lok Sabha in September 2011, Soumitra Sen saved himself from the stigma of being removed through impeachment.
Dhinakaran had tried to first resign and then return.
Justice P.D. There were other allegations against Dhinakaran related to land grab and other property disputes when he was the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court in 2008-09. On this basis, he could not become a judge of the Supreme Court in 2009.
In 2009, more than 50 Rajya Sabha members gave notice for impeachment against him. A three-member committee was formed with the approval of Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari. During the committee proceedings, Dhinakaran, a member of the committee, senior advocate P.P. Rao, raised objections to his impartiality and went to the Supreme Court. But on July 5, 2011, the Supreme Court rejected his petition.
The court accepted that the objection was raised very late and it gives the impression of postponing the investigation. On 29 July 2011, Dhinakaran sent his resignation to the President. Although his tenure was left till May next year, his resignation made the two-year-old impeachment case pending in the Rajya Sabha meaningless. Interestingly, he changed his mind within a few days of resigning. Tried to withdraw resignation. But the Law Ministry rejected it. He was removed from office but not through impeachment.
SN Shukla removed from judicial work
Allahabad High Court Justice S.N. Shukla’s case was different from all these. He remained in office till his retirement but was deprived of working as a judge. He was accused of allowing a private medical college to recruit students, ignoring the order of the Supreme Court. In January 2018, a three-member internal inquiry committee of the Supreme Court reported on his alleged irregularities and found him fit to be removed from the post. The then Chief Justice Deepak Mishra asked him for resignation or voluntary retirement. But he rejected both the offers.
As a result, his judicial work was withdrawn from February 2018 itself. With the permission of the Chief Justice, CBI. Also filed a corruption case against him. Even after being found guilty in the investigation, the motion of impeachment against him was not presented in the Parliament. He remained in the post till his retirement on 17 July 2020.
Question raised on committee, Yashwant Verma resigned
In the latest case of Justice Yashwant Verma, the impeachment motion presented in the Lok Sabha met the same fate as on the first occasion. Before the report of the inquiry committee constituted by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha was presented before the House, Justice Verma resigned and closed the matter. It is a different matter that after leaving the post, the investigating agencies should investigate and take action on the complaint of fire in his bungalow on 14-15 March 2025 and the burning or finding of alleged bundles of notes in the store there.
He was found guilty in the internal investigation of the Supreme Court. Then he was transferred from Delhi High Court to Allahabad and kept away from judicial work. Meanwhile, Justice Verma also kept raising questions on the internal investigation of the Supreme Court. He also unsuccessfully challenged the validity of the inquiry committee constituted by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha in the Supreme Court. Justice Verma’s case became one of those rare cases in the history of Indian judiciary, where a fire incident took the form of a major controversy. This created a huge stir in the judicial world. Heated the Parliament also. But before Parliament could do anything, Justice Verma’s resignation rendered another impeachment meaningless.
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