Clownish behaviour by Cong: BJP on impeachment

The BJP on Tuesday described the Congress move to withdraw the petition against the rejection of the impeachment motion as "clownish behaviour" and wanted the Supreme Court to take "serious" note of wastage of precious time of judges by the petitioners.

"Clownish behaviour of Congress leaders in the impeachment case is leading to wastage of precious time of the Supreme Court. Filing the petition and then withdrawing it after the Constitutional Bench was formed is a criminal waste of the time of five judges. Supreme Court should take it seriously," BJP general secretary Ram Madhav tweeted.

Two Congress MPs in the Rajya Sabha - Partap Singh Bajwa from Punjab and Amee Harshadray Yajnik from Gujarat - withdrew their petition from the Supreme Court, challenging the rejection of their notice of impeachment against the Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak Misra by Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, questioning the setting up of a five-judge Constitution bench to hear the matter.

The BJP had earlier criticised the Opposition move to impeach the CJI with party president Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley leading the charge.

However, senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan found the developments "sad". In a tweet, he said the CJI decided the bench to hear the challenge to the rejection of his impeachment motion and the Supreme Court "even refused to provide a copy of the administrative order by which the bench was constituted".

"That order could be challenged on the ground that CJI had a conflict of interest," Bhushan added.