3 min readNew DelhiMay 20, 2018 05:33 AM IST
First published on: May 20, 2018 at 05:33 AM IST
Congress leader and advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi addressing the media at Supreme Court, in New Delhi, on Saturday. (Express Photo/Tashi Tobgyal)
Did you expect the Supreme Court to grant you a midnight hearing?
I am never presumptuous about the result. I was confident that if they evaluate the urgency, they would give a hearing. Our cause was helped immensely by the BJP. Because once the Governor issued a letter at 9.30 pm and within 30 seconds thereafter B S Yeddyurappa announced that he would take oath at 9.30 the next morning… So the BJP actually helped our cause.
The Congress’s legal fight came against the backdrop of friction between the Congress and the CJI. And you approached him for an urgent hearing?
There is no such contradiction. Impeachment is a constitutional right of individual MPs. It is not a party which does impeachment…. Does it mean that once the impeachment is dismissed, every Congressmen, the Congress party and individuals are barred from the Supreme Court till October 2018?… It is trying to connect two dots which have no connection.
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You had raised questions over the Bench that heard the impeachment plea. The Bench hearing your Karnataka petition included Justices A K Sikri and Justice S A Bobde. Did that surprise you?
No. First of all, I had never subscribed to that view. Secondly… I had said at that time that the movement of the [impeachment] motion was not necessary… Thereafter, once it was dismissed, I had said that there is no need to carry it further to court… And on the same night [midnight hearing] I had said that it is magnificent that irrespective of merit, it is glorious that only the Indian Supreme Court had can allow access at any time after they accept urgency on their own evaluation.
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You had problems with the Bench and were arguing before the same Bench..
The issues are totally unconnected. It is the issue which matters.
Looking back, do you think the Congress should not have gone this far with the impeachment issue?
Again the answer is the same. You are connecting the unconnectables… We have not lost the faith in the institution at all. What we attacking was the fear psychosis sought to be created by the executive government over institutions. This is what Rahul Gandhi had been repeatedly emphasising. How can you say that we have lost faith in the entire Supreme Court? Is there not a fear psychosis, a hesitation created… in so many institutions? That is the attempt of the central government…. The institutions will have to stand up.
Congress leader and advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi addressing the media at Supreme Court, in New Delhi, on Saturday. (Express Photo/Tashi Tobgyal)
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