CJI impeachment row: Supreme Court dismisses the petition as withdrawn

New Delhi: In a surprising and unprecedented development on Tuesday, the Supreme Court, without going into the merits, “dismissed as withdrawn” the writ petition filed by two Congress MPs challenging the order of Rajya Sabha chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu refusing to admit the impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

A five-judge Constitution Bench comprising Justices A.K. Sikri, S.A. Bobde, N.V. Ramana, Arun Mishra and A.K. Goel dismissed the petition after refusing to give details of the administrative order purported to have been passed by the CJI on setting up the Constitution Bench to hear the petition.

Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal told the bench that he would rather withdraw the petition if the court did not want to share details of the administrative order. He argued that the CJI couldn’t pass such an order, as it was a conflict of interest.

“We were told in the morning that our matter has been listed before a Constitution Bench. We are only asking as to who passed the administrative order,” Mr Sibal said. “It is grossly illegal, grossly unfair and against the principles of natural justice,” added advocate Prashant Bhushan in support of Mr Sibal’s arguments.

Mr Sibal submitted that since there was no judicial order referring the plea to a five-judge bench, he had to presume there was an administrative order, and he needs a copy of that order to decide the further course of action.