36 More Former Judges Condem Move To Impeach Justice Swaminathan, Taking Total Number To 92
Three out of the 92 judges are former Supreme Court judges, and the rest are former judges and Chief Justices of various High Courts.
36 more former judges, including the former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Krishn Murari, have condemned the move by certain Members of Parliament to initiate impeachment proceedings against Justice G.R. Swaminathan of the Madras High Court.
Earlier, on December 12, 56 former judges had condemned the same move issuing a declaration titled “STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY & CALL TO PROTECT INDEPENDENCE OF JUDICIARY,” the signatories said, “We, the former Judges of the Hon'ble Supreme Court and former Chief Justices and Judges of the Hon'ble High Courts, take serious exception to the attempt being made by certain Members of Parliament and other senior advocates to impeach Hon'ble Justice G.R. Swaminathan of the Madras High Court.”
They termed the effort “a brazen attempt to browbeat judges who do not fall in line with the ideological and political expectations of a particular section of society.” Allowing such a move to proceed, they warned, “would cut at the very roots of our democracy and the independence of the judiciary.”
Designated Senior Advocates and Advocates practicing before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had also submitted a memorandum to Om Birla, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, regarding the same.
In the memorandum, the Advocates expressed serious concern over what they described as a threat to the independence of the judiciary and an attempt by a section of Honourable Members of Parliament to move a Motion of Impeachment against Justice G. R. Swaminathan, Judge of the Madras High Court.
According to the memorandum, the Advocates are of the opinion that the allegations levelled against Justice G. R. Swaminathan are baseless, false, frivolous, and atrocious. They said, “The attempt pursued by the Legislature is nothing short of a brazen breach and misuse of the Constitutional Powers undertaken by a Section of Members of this August House of People without personal knowledge of the facts alleged and the values and virtues held close to his chest by Honourable Justice G.R.Swaminathan. We find the Motion of Impeachment as a direct attempt to destabilize the Judiciary in India through high-handed application of one of the most extraordinary provisions of the Constitution of India.”
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