LS drops motion,Sen escapes impeachment

With two major political parties the Congress and BJP of the view that there was no need to continue with the impeachment proceedings.

With two major political parties the Congress and BJP of the view that there was no need to continue with the impeachment proceedings against former Calcutta High Court Judge Soumitra Sen whose resignation took effect on Monday,the Lok Sabha dropped the impeachment proceeding just hours before it was to take it up. With this,Sen narrowly escaped becoming the first judge in independent India to be removed from office through the impeachment process.

The decision to drop the impeachment proceeding was taken by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar after members in the lower House of Parliament said yes to her query: Is it the sense of the House that we may not proceed with agenda item number 12?

Earlier in the morning,Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Law Minister Salman Khurshid met to discuss the matter. Sources said that leaders of the main opposition parties were also spoken to in order to find out if they wanted to continue with the impeachment even though Sens resignation had been accepted by the President.

At 2 pm,when the Lok Sabha was to take up the matter,Khurshid conveyed to the House the decision that Justice Sens resignation had been accepted.

I have to bring to the notice of the Speaker and this House that Justice Soumitra Sen,judge of Calcutta High Court,has resigned from office under Proviso 1a of Article 217 of the Constitution, he informed the House.

On August 18,the Rajya Sabha passed a motion by an overwhelming majority to impeach Sen,who was found guilty of misconduct and misappropriation of funds in his capacity as a Court Receiver by a panel of jurists appointed by Rajya Sabha Chairperson Hamid Ansari.

Last week,after it became clear that the Lok Sabha would also vote to impeach him,Sen submitted his resignation through his lawyer. However,after Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati opined that since the resignation was not in the correct format Sens lawyer had faxed the resignation to the Presidents office there was lack of clarity on whether the Lok Sabha should carry on with the impeachment. The Lok Sabha was scheduled to take up the impeachment on Monday post-lunch.