Justice Sen says impeachment motion has defects

"The motion has two defects," Subhas Bhattacharyya, lawyer for Justice Sen, said on the reply given by the Judge to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari.

The lawyer cited two defects in the impeachment motion as 'misappropriation of a large sum of money as receiver' and 'misrepresentation'.

Justice Sen was given an opportunity to reply to the findings of the Inquiry Committee set up by the Rajya Sabha by December 9 and it was filed in due time, Bhattacharyya said.

"Parliament cannot discuss the role of the receiver in an impeachment motion," he said, referring to the time when the alleged misappropriation took place.

Sen was a practising lawyer in the Calcutta High Court and a court-appointed receiver in the early-1990's and became a judge only on December three, 2003.

Referring to the term 'misappropriation of large sums of money' in the three-member inquiry committee report, he said "in the absence of any amount being quantified, the motion is also vague."

According to Bhattacharyya, Justice Sen's reply stated that there was 'misrepresentation'

He said "the formation of the in-house committee is absolutely illegal and there was no complaint against Justice Sen in the public domain.

"The only complaint in this particular case was the adverse remarks passed by the trial court, which were later on deleted and set aside by the division bench," Bhattacharyya said.

Ansari had set up the three-member committee headed by Supreme Court Judge B Sudarshan Reddy after 58 MPs moved an impeachment motion against Sen in March last year under the Judges Enquiry Act.