Why govt should not opt out of impeaching Justice Sen

There is surely something wrong in the move to drop impeachment proceedings against Justice Soumitra Sen just because he resigned before the process could be completed. The Rajya Sabha voted 189-17 last month in favour of his impeachment and the Lok Sabha may have confirmed it shortly, thus leading to the first impeachment of a senior judge in post-independent India. Not impeaching Justice Sen by dropping the proceedings in the Lok Sabha sends the wrong message about how serious we are about punishing wrongdoing in the higher judiciary. Every judge can now wait till one house votes to impeach him and then quickly put in his papers so that he gets an honourable discharge and retains his pension and terminal benefits. [caption id=“attachment_76663” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Former Justice Soumitra Sen. PTI”]  [/caption] Justice Sen claimed during his Rajya Sabha hearing that he was being scape-goated just to prove that the judiciary was tough on its own wrongdoers. “I am being made a sacrificial lamb to cleanse the judiciary,” he said, and also obliquely referred to former Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan’s role in his impeachment. It was Balakrishnan’s note to the Prime Minister that finally led to his impeachment proceedings. The former CJI has refuted Sen’s allegations. Justice Sen was found guilty of misappropriating Rs 33.23 lakh which were under his custody as a court-appointed receiver and for misrepresenting facts before a court. He told the Rajya Sabha that “the decision to hold me guilty was taken a long time back” as an inquiry was initiated against him even after a division bench of the Calcutta High Court had cleared him of the charges. This is, of course, bollocks. It is a self-serving argument to claim that a judge should go scot-free just because his crime did not relate to his judicial role, but an earlier one, when he was a court-appointed receiver. By this yardstick, no judge would ever be impeached. Another judge against whom impeachment proceedings were initiated—former Sikkim High Court Chief Justice PD Dinakaran—was accused of land-grabbing. It would have been impossible to prove that he made these acquisitions by using his judicial position. Ex-CJI Balakrishnan also faces accusations that his relatives amassed wealth during his tenure as CJI. Firstpost has carried an interview with a former colleague of Balakrishnan, who was approached to fix a case. Dinakaran resigned towards the end of July when he saw that Parliament would not be deterred from proceeding against him. In fact, three days after resigning, he tried to withdraw his resignation, but the government was not amused. He then went on to claim that he was being targeted because he was a Dalit Christian. “I have a sinking suspicion”, wrote Dinakaran in his letter of resignation, “that my misfortune was because of my circumstances of my birth in the socially-oppressed and underprivileged society. Integrity of members of these communities who attain high office is always baselessly questioned through innuendo, searing and spreading of false rumours, while the privileged are treated by the vested interests as embodiment of all virtues.” By allowing Justice Sen to get away from his crimes through the mere act of resignation, Parliament is proving Dinakaran right in terms of Dalit perceptions. He will be allowed to spread his canard that he was targeted for his caste. The government’s decision to drop the proceedings against Justice Sen flies in the face of advice from Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati, who felt that all the efforts put in over the last two years would go waste. Given the fact that removing a judge is time-consuming and almost next to impossible in normal circumstances, the government’s decision to let Justice Sen resign will make it all the more tougher to bring in impeachment motions against judges who veer off the straight-and-narrow. We have a tendency in India to avoid going the whole hog after wrongdoers. This is what we are witnessing in the case of Rajiv Gandhi’s killers, who are now seeking clemency with help from Tamil Nadu politicians, who have passed a resolution in the assembly to this effect. Now, the Punjab and Kashmir assemblies want their own favourite death row prisoners to be given clemency. India will pay a high price for its lazy approach to Justice Sen’s impeachment.