'Role of Chairman not that of mere post office' - VP Venkaiah Naidu stands by CJI motion decision, as per sources. Full Details here

As per sources, Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu has said that his decision to reject the Opposition parties' motion to impeach the Chief Justice of India (CJI) was a timely one that was taken after a month of diligence and conforms with the Judges Inquiry Act of 1968. 

Ten top apex court lawyers met with Naidu on Tuesday morning to compliment him over the decision, as per sources, with the VP relaying that he only did what was expected of him and that he's satisfied with the job he's done.

Venkaiah Naidu is also said to have responded to the Congress and Kapil Sibal's allegation that he acted in a quasi-judicial manner whereas actually, his role was to simply check if the motion met the minimum criteria to be admitted, i.e. that it had 50 signatures.

“The concerned law (The Judges Inquiry Act, 1968, Section 3) clearly required the Chairman of Rajya Sabha to look for prima facie in the matter for either admitting the notice or refusing to do so. A clear responsibility was cast on the Chairman in this regard and it would not be correct to interpret the role of Chairman as that of mere post office. Chairman is required to act as a constitutional functionary which is a substantial responsibility”, a top source said.

In terms of the decision being 'hasty', which was one of Kapil Sibal's allegations, as per a source, the Vice President's views are as follows:

“Chief Justice of India is the highest judicial functionary of the country and any issue in public domain concerning him requires to be resolved at the earliest following prescribed procedures so as to prevent the atmosphere from being further vitiated. Issues raised in the notice mostly pertained to the functioning of the Supreme Court and they have to be resolved internally. Any other means of seeking to address them amounts to interference in the independence of judiciary.”

On Monday, the Vice President had rejected the Opposition's motion to impeach the CJI. Following this, the Congress had lashed out, with Kapil Sibal calling the decision ill-advised and hasty and confirming that they would challenge it in the Supreme Court.

The Congress, meanwhile, escalated the matter by issuing a shocking tweet via their social media in-charge Divya Spandana where the CJI was called a bench-fixer.