Bid to remove Justice Reddy fails again

Nine RS MPs have withdrawn their signatures from proposal to the President

June 15, 2017 11:41 pm | Updated December 03, 2021 05:08 pm IST - NEW DELHI

C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy

C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy

For the second time in six months, a motion to introduce proceedings to remove Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy of the Hyderabad High Court has failed.

Nine of the 54 members of the Rajya Sabha, who had proposed the initiation of proceedings against him, have withdrawn their signatures. “Some signatories to the petition have withdrawn their names. So, there is no motion for his removal,” said a senior Rajya Sabha Member.

Charge against Reddy

Justice Reddy has been accused of victimising a Dalit junior civil court judge, S. Rama Krishna, for refusing to remove the name of the former’s brother, Pawan Kumar Reddy, from the dying declaration of a person in 2012. Proceedings to remove a judge, which require an address to the President by a special majority of both Houses of Parliament, cannot be initiated without the signatures of at least 50 members of the Rajya Sabha or 100 members of the Lok Sabha.

 

If such a motion gets admitted in a House, a three-member committee investigates the charges. If it finds the judge guilty of misbehaviour or incapacity, the House in which the motion was initiated, must pass it with a two-thirds majority, followed by a similar passage by the other House.

If this happens, an address is made to the President for the removal of the judge.

In Justice Reddy's case, the requisite number of signatures of Rajya Sabha MPs have not been obtained even in two attempts.

In December too, the petition submitted to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari was not entertained, as 19 of the 61 MPs who had signed it withdrew their names.

Many members of the Rajya Sabha had at that time convinced some MPs to withdraw their signatures.

 

YSR Congress Party MP Vijay Sai Reddy had told The Hindu at that time that he did ask MPs to reconsider their support to the petition. “If you are trying to bring in caste into every aspect, we will not be able to function properly as a society,” he had said. “I support Justice Reddy because I believe in his integrity, and the fact that these allegations have been made earlier and been proven false.”

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