Justice Varma's Impeachment Motion Futile Post-Resignation, Say Experts

Justice Yashwant Varma

NEW DELHI: As Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has decided to table the inquiry committee's report on former Allahabad HC judge Justice Yashwant Varma in Parliament, constitutional experts have said the continuation of the motion for his removal will serve no purpose as the former judge has already resigned. Justice Varma resigned on April 9 faced with a removal motion on discovery of unaccounted money in his official residence in Delhi. But President Murmu does not appear to have accepted his resignation as his name still figures at serial number four of the list of judges in the official portal of Allahabad HC, leading to speculation that he can still be impeached. Placing the report in Parliament is bound to mark a new turn in the debate over the issue as MPs across party lines had signed the notice for Varma's removal after what was seen by many as a clear case of corruption. With neither govt nor opposition parties, which joined the treasury benches in signing the bipartisan notice for his removal, speaking on the issue so far, the fate of the motion remains unclear. The option of lodging an FIR to get to the bottom of the source of money is also there but it is a call for govt to take. Advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Sanjay Hegde said there was no uncertainty or vagueness on the issue and it was authoritatively held by SC that a judge ceases to be a judge after resigning from the post and the acceptance of resignation was not needed. "There is no question of impeachment now. How can you remove a person from a post which he is not holding anymore? Once he resigned, he ceased to be a judge. Tabling the report in Parliament is just a formality and a political decision. No effective purpose would be served by it. He cannot be impeached," Rakesh Dwivedi, a scholarly voice on constitutional law, told TOI. A five-judge SC bench in the Gopal Chandra Misra case on Feb 15, 1978, addressed the issue of how the resignation of a judge comes into effect. It was unanimous that once the judge sends his resignation to the President, he is deemed to have ceased to be a judge. Advocate Sanjay Hegde said, "This exercise (tabling of report) is futile. A dead person cannot be tried in a court of law and similarly a judge cannot be impeached if he does not hold the post. The judge resigned in April... the panel filed the report in May. Even the panel should not have proceeded after his resignation. The purpose behind tabling the report may be to create pressure on judiciary..." He asked why a criminal case was not being filed as Justice Verma does not enjoy any protection now.