Kapil Sibal slams Venkaiah Naidu's rejection of impeachment motion against CJI Dipak Misra, calls it 'hasty and illegal'

Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Monday hit out at Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu for rejecting its impeachment motion against Chief Justice Dipak Misra. In a press conference, Sibal said the rejection was ‘ill-advised, hasty and illegal’. The Congress leader questioned the hurry in rejecting the motion and said, “I am an experienced lawyer, but I also take time to analyse an issue.” Sibal questioned how Naidu came to a conclusion on the matter in such a short time. Sibal said that the decision to reject the motion “shatters the confidence of the people, and destroys the legitimacy of law.” [caption id=“attachment_4442625” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Congress leader Kapil Sibal. Reuters[/caption] The Congress has said it will move a petition in the Supreme Court in the matter. Earlier on Monday, Naidu rejected the notice given by Opposition parties led by the Congress for the impeachment of Misra citing lack of substantial merit in it. Naidu held extensive consultations with top legal and constitutional experts, including former chief justices and judges, before taking the decision, sources said. The rejection of the notice comes a day after he held the consultations to determine the maintainability of the motion. Seven Opposition parties led by Congress had last week moved a notice before him for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) on five grounds of “misbehaviour”. Naidu said in an order on Monday that he had a detailed personal conversation on all the aspects arising from the notice and had considered each of the allegations made in it individually as well as collectively. “Based on all this, I have come to the conclusion that this motion does not deserve to be admitted… On careful analysis and reflection, I find there is virtually no concrete verifiable imputation. “We cannot allow any of our pillars of governance to be weakened by any thought, word or action,” he said. Follow live updates here