Brazen Attempt To Browbeat Judges, Would Cut At Roots Of Democracy: 56 Former Judges Condemn Move To Impeach Justice G.R. Swaminathan
A group of former judges of the Supreme Court and various High Courts has issued a statement condemning the reported move by certain Members of Parliament to initiate impeachment proceedings against Justice G.R. Swaminathan of the Madras High Court.
In their 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.”
The statement was issued by 56 signatories consisting of 2 Supreme Court Rtd Judges, including Justice Adarsh Goel and Justice Hemant Gupta, 5 High Court Chief Justices and 49 High Court Judges.
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.”
The former judges argued that even if the stated reasons of the MPs were accepted at face value, they were “wholly inadequate to justify resorting to such a rare, exceptional and serious constitutional measure as impeachment.”
Recalling past political interference in the judiciary, the statement pointed to the Emergency-era supersessions and the treatment of Justice H.R. Khanna, calling them “sobering reminders of how political overreach can damage judicial independence.” They emphasised, “The supersession of three seniormost judges of the Supreme Court after the decision in Kesavananda Bharati, the sidelining of Justice H.R. Khanna after his famous dissent in ADM Jabalpur, are sobering reminders of how political overreach can damage judicial independence. Despite these onslaughts, our Judiciary has stood the test of the time and withstood all external pressures. The present move is not an isolated aberration. It fits into a clear and deeply troubling pattern in our recent constitutional history, where sections of the political class have sought to discredit and intimidate the higher judiciary whenever outcomes do not align with their interests.”
The signatories said the latest attempt was part of a “clear and deeply troubling pattern in our recent constitutional history,” citing the 2018 move against then CJI Dipak Misra, campaigns against Chief Justices Ranjan Gogoi, S.A. Bobde, Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, and attacks on the current CJI, Justice Surya Kant.
They stressed, “This is not principled, reasoned criticism of judicial decisions; it is an attempt to weaponise impeachment and public calumny as instruments of pressure a practice that strikes at the heart of judicial independence and the basic norms of constitutional democracy.”
Warning against the misuse of constitutional safeguards, the statement said: “To wield the threat of removal as a means of compelling judges to conform to political expectations is to turn a constitutional safeguard into an instrument of intimidation.”
It described the present move as “a continuing assault on the dignity and independence of the judicial institution itself.”
The former judges urged Members of Parliament, the Bar, civil society, and citizens to “unequivocally denounce this move and ensure that it is nipped in the bud at the very inception.”
They concluded that judges must remain accountable only to their oath and the Constitution, “In a Republic governed by the rule of law, judgments are tested by appeals and legal critique, and not by threats of impeachment for political non-conformity.”