Say Impeachment Move A Brazen Attempt To ‘Browbeat Judiciary’
NEW DELHI: Expressing solidarity with Madras high court judge Justice G R Swaminathan, 56 former judges Friday issued an open letter urging members of Parliament to withdraw the impeachment notice against him. They warned that the move undermines judicial independence and seeks to pressure judges who do not align with certain political or ideological expectations.Signatories include former SC judges Adarsh Goel and Hemant Gupta, Justice Anil Deo Singh (ex-CJ Rajasthan HC), Justice Narsimha Reddy (ex-CJ Patna HC), Justice P B Bajanthri (ex-CJ Patna HC) and Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee (ex-CJ Karnataka HC).The notice was filed after Justice Swaminathan, acting on a petition by a right-wing activist, directed state authorities to ensure that a sacred lamp be lit at a hilltop temple. Govt officials said this went against the longstanding practice of lighting the lamp at the nearby Deepa Mandapam, where the ritual had been observed for years.In their letter, the former judges sharply criticised the attempt to remove him. “We, the former Judges of SC and former CJs and Judges of HCs, take serious exception to the attempt being made by certain MPs and other senior advocates to impeach Justice G R Swaminathan of Madras HC. This is a brazen attempt to browbeat judges who do not fall in line with the ideological and political expectations of a particular section of society. If such an attempt is permitted to proceed, it would cut at the very roots of our democracy and independence of judiciary.”They stressed that the reasons cited by the MPs do not justify such a drastic step. “Even if the reasons mentioned by the signatory MPs are taken at face value, they are wholly inadequate to justify resorting to such a rare, exceptional & serious constitutional measure as impeachment,” the statement said.The former judges further warned that using impeachment to challenge judicial decisions poses a grave threat to the rule of law. “The very purpose of the impeachment mechanism is to uphold the integrity of the judiciary, not to convert it into a tool of arm-twisting, signalling and retaliation. To wield the threat of removal as a means of compelling judges to conform to political expectations is to turn a constitutional safeguard into an instrument of intimidation.Such an approach is “anti-democratic, anti-constitutional, and an anathema” to the rule of law. The present attempt to impeach a sitting high court judge for discharging his judicial duty is, therefore, not an isolated episode but part of a continuing assault on dignity and independence of the judicial institution itself. Today, the target may be one judge; tomorrow, it will be the institution as a whole,” they said.They also noted that this reflects a wider pattern of pressure on the judiciary. According to them, recent years have seen similar attempts to attack or discredit former chief justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi, S A Bobde and D Y Chandrachud, as well as current CJI Justice Surya Kant, whenever their decisions upset political groups. They said such efforts aim to use impeachment and public criticism as tools to control judges rather than engage in genuine legal critique.
