Body wants MP CJ impeached

New Delhi: The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) has urged all political parties to come together to initiate impeachment proceedings against the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh HC Hemant Gupta as it is a fit case for impeachment to protect the integrity of the judiciary.

Convener of CJAR Prashant Bhushan in a statement said that it had on March 3 sent a serious complaint against the then acting Chief Justice of the Patna HC, namely Justice Hemant Gupta, containing evidence of several charges of money laundering, acquiring several properties by illegal means, possessing disproportionate assets, and seeking to influence officer of the ED who was investigating these charges and had submitted a scathing report.

In pursuance of a resolution adopted in a chief justices conference 1997, it had been decided that an in-house procedure for investigating charges against sitting judges would be devised, in which the Chief Justice of India would constitute a committee of two Chief Justices of the high court, and another high court judge.

However, despite there being considerable evidence for the aforementioned charges, and the existence of a taped conversation between Justice Gupta and the ED officer in which he asked the ED officer to come and meet him to resolve the matter and tried to influence him, no such in-house inquiry appears to have been set up, despite a further reminder dated 27.03.2017 sent to the Chief Justice of India.