Jaitley: Congress taking revenge for unfavourable ruling in Loya case

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday termed the Opposition’s proposal for impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra a “revenge petition” designed to intimidate the judge, as the Congress was unhappy at the Supreme Court’s dismissal of pleas for probe into the death of CBI Judge BH Loya. He said the Opposition’s move amounts to a “serious threat” to judicial independence.

The Finance Minister, a lawyer and a former Law Minister himself, released a five-page note titled “Justice Loya Death Case – The One That Almost Created a Judicial Mutiny”, in which he listed reasons to conclude that the Opposition, especially the Congress, was misusing the power to impeach as a “political tool” that not only undermines institutional integrity but also devalues the Constitutional process of ensuring inter-institutional accountability.

“My preliminary reaction to the impeachment motion filed today is clear. It is a revenge petition after the falsehood of the Congress party has been established in the Justice Loya death case. It is an attempt to intimidate a judge and send a message to other judges that if you don’t agree with us, fifty MPs are enough for a revenge action,” said the Finance Minister.

The FM dismissed as “stale and trivial” the five charges listed against the Chief Justice. He said the power to impeach is only to be exercised in case of “proven misconduct”, but the Congress is trivialising it for political reasons.

At the time of his death in December 2014, CBI judge BH Loya was hearing the case pertaining to extra-judicial killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kausar Bi and associate Tulsiram Prajapati. At the time, the case also involved current BJP President Amit Shah, who was subsequently discharged.

Loya died in Nagpur where he had gone to attend a wedding. Media reports last year cast doubts on the circumstances leading to his death. However, a bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had on Thursday dismissed as frivolous the pleas for an independent probe into the incident, and decided that Loya’s was a natural death.

Jaitley also referred to the averments of four sitting judges of the apex court on Loya’s death during their unprecedented press conference in January, saying the quartet had commented on the case without adequate examination of facts. The Opposition has cited the press conference, at which the four judges alluded to the CJI misusing his power as ‘Master of Roster’ to fix benches in favour of the government, and their reference to the case pertaining to Loya’s death in the impeachment motion.

Slams judges

The FM came down hard on the judges for publicly commenting on an ongoing case without ascertaining facts, and questioning the CJI’s role. He referred to the incident as a case of a “divided court” which he said was the “single biggest threat to judicial independence” besides the “intimidatory tactics of institution disruptors and impeachment motion”.

Defends Amit Shah

Jaitley described at length the evidence against Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin case and underlined that it had been found insufficient to even charge him in the case. He said individuals who raked up the Judge Loya death case were also the ones aligned against Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin case.

“…On this flimsy evidence, any court would have discharged Amit Shah. While granting him bail, the Gujarat High Court had commented that this was actually a case of no prosecutable evidence. It did not matter to Amit Shah as to which judge heard this flimsy charge against him. Amit Shah was discharged in the case. Some individuals challenged the discharge order before the Mumbai High Court and the Supreme Court. The challenge was rejected. Many of those who raked up the judge Loya death case were associated against Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin case,” said Jaitley.

The FM argued that the Judge Loya death case was trumped by the same people who had tried to frame Shah in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. And when different courts disrupted these attempts, which have all been motivated by political interests, an impeachment motion seriously compromising judicial independence has been moved.

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