Almost four months after the impeachment process against Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court was set into motion in the Rajya Sabha, his lawyer has written a letter to Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari not to have eminent jurist Fali S Nariman in the committee that will decide on his fate.

The committee, comprising two sitting judges and Nariman, was constituted on March 20, 2009, under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968. This came after 58 MPs of the Rajya Sabha, on February 21, moved the impeachment motion against Justice Sen on the basis of a recommendation sent by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last August.

The motion, formally admitted on February 27, sought the removal of the judge for “misappropriating large sums of money which he received in his capacity as receiver appointed by the High Court and misrepresenting facts with regard to the misappropriation before the High Court.”

As a Court-appointed receiver in a lawsuit between Steel Authority of India Ltd and Shipping Corporation of India, Sen had deposited Rs 32 lakh received by him on behalf of SAIL in his personal account. He was forced to return the money along with interest after a single judge of the Calcutta High Court, in 2006, concluded that he had prima facie converted and appropriated the amount lying in his custody without authority of the Court and his conduct was nothing short of criminal misappropriation.

In its report, dated February 1, 2008, a committee of judges concluded that Sen misappropriated funds and held his misconduct as so serious that it called for initiation of proceedings for his removal.

... contd.