Kolkata: Calcutta High Court judge Soumitra Sen may just become the first judge to be impeached after a Rajya Sabha committee found him guilty of financial irregularities. Vice President Hamid Ansari, who is also the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, headed the committee.
The report will now be tabled in Parliament in the winter session, when both Houses will put the issue to vote. Justice Sen, who had not been performing judicial work for over two years, had allegedly embezzled Rs 24 lakh.
The tainted judge however has questioned the constitutionality of the impeachment proceedings, as the embezzlement he's being accused of took place when he was a lawyer and not a judge
On Saturday, after the panel submitted the report, sources in the Vice President's Secretariat told The Indian Express that the report would be placed before both Houses of Parliament in the winter session for further proceedings under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968.
Under Article 124(4), which provides for the procedure for removal of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court or the HC, a judge of the SC can be removed on the orders of the President.
The orders of the President are passed "after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity".
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