Congress withdraws plea from Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: Just a day after going to the Supreme Court, senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Tuesday withdrew the petition challenging vice-president and Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah's Naidu decision to reject the notice of removal motion against CJI Dipak Misra from the Supreme Court.

The petition was filed by two Congress Rajya Sabha MPs Partap Singh Bajwa from Punjab and Amee Harshadray Yajnik from Gujarat -- challenging the vice-president's decision to nix the bid to impeach the Chief Justice.

A five-judge bench of Justices A K Sikri, SA Bobde, N V Ramana, Arun K Mishra and Adarsh K Girl dismissed the petition as withdrawn.

Sibal's appearance for the two RS Congress MPs was objected by two advocates R P Luthra and Ashwini Upadhyay who said the Bar Council of India prohibits those advocate politicians who have signed the notice of removal motion from arguing the same case. But the apex court said it was for Sibal to decide whether to argue or not.

The top court repeatedly asked what purpose it would serve if Sibal were given a copy of the administrative order passed by the CJI that referred the petition to the five-judge bench. Sibal maintained that only after getting the order would he decide whether to challenge it or accept it. But when the Supreme Court expressed reluctance to part with the administrative order, Sibal then abruptly decided to withdraw the petition.

At a press conference shortly after withdrawing the petition, Sibal listed the reasons why the petition was withdrawn. He expressed unhappiness at not getting a copy of the order passed by the CJI on the five judge-bench that was to hear the plea.

Attorney general K K Venugopal said only two MPs of the Congress had approached the top court, none of the six other parties whose members were signatories to the impeachment notice.

"The presumption is that all others have not supported the stand taken by the Congress to challenge the rejection of impeachment notice by Naidu," said Venugopal.