The controversy surrounding a judge of the High Court of Calcutta, Soumitra Sen, is set to linger after the Union Ministry of Law and Justice declared in October that it was not sure if the case made against him for financial misconduct, will stand scrutiny.
The call for Sen’s removal, as reported in the Indian Express, came in a letter to the prime minister from the chief justice of India, KG Balakrishnan, alleging that Sen had been found to have indulged in financial misconduct prior to his elevation to high court judge in 2003. Sen, working as court-appointed receiver in a lawsuit between the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and the Shipping Corporation of India, is alleged to have deposited around US$65,000 that he received on behalf of SAIL into his personal account.
Impeachment proceedings against Sen appeared likely after Law Minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj, said that since the judge’s removal had been sought by the chief justice of India himself, there was little the government could do to prevent it. However, that has been put in doubt by the Law Ministry’s announcement in October that it would seek legal advice on whether there were grounds for initiating impeachment proceedings against the judge.
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“The impeachment process is almost like a court process. We will have to establish that he committed misconduct after his appointment as a judge. However, in this case, Justice Sen’s alleged misconduct relates to his working as a lawyer. This is why we need to be certain that the action, because of which his removal from office has been sought, will stand scrutiny before parliament,” a senior officer of the ministry was quoted as saying in the India Express.
Sen’s lawyer has said that the judge would defend himself before parliament if need be. Under the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968, parliament, through the speaker of the Lok Sabha or the chairman of Rajya Sabha, can set up a committee of three persons to inquire into the conduct of a judge. The report of this committee is binding on parliament.
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