A change.org petition to impeach Justice Surya Kant and Justice JB Pardiwala - the two Supreme Court judges for their observations on former BJP leader Nupur Sharma for her comments on the Prophet has garnered nearly 50,000 signatures. The judges had observed that Nupur Sharma is "single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country".
The SC bench observations came as Sharma had appealed to the court to club the several criminal cases and FIRs which are lodged against her in various states and be transferred to Delhi. The petition that was started on 5 July got thousands of supporters in a span of 18 hours.
Also Read | Nupur Sharma Must Apologise To The Country For Prophet Remark: SC
What is the petition?
The petitioner mentions that the citizens of India are concerned about the recent developments in the country, especially the recent hearing in the case of Sharma.
"Without even going into the facts of the case and without considering the death and rape threats to this young lady, they made observations accusing Nupur Sharma of being single-handedly responsible for setting the entire country on fire and indirectly held her responsible for the unfortunate killing at Udaipur," the petition reads.
The petition further adds that "such shocking statements have been relied upon by the radical Islamist forces and anti-India forces like Taliban and by national and international media to show Hindus and our country in poor light."
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Who started the petition?
Vikay Panday, son of a former Gorakhpur Mayor and BJP leader Dr. Satya Pandey started the petition urging members of the Parliament to initiate impeachment proceedings against Justice Surya Kant and Justice JB Pardiwala.
"I just made a petition which shall be given to MPs. It's for the Initiation of Impeachment Proceedings against Justice Surya Kant & Justice J. B. Pardiwala - Sign the Petition," Panday had tweeted sharing the change.org petition link.
In the petition, Panday has also mentioned that the 'Supreme Court judges have acted irresponsibly and without any material on record, "made such statements which are not only unconstitutional but also against the values and ethos of this great nation. We seek your support for the impeachment of these two judges."
Panday, a software architect also runs social media campaigns like "I Support Namo" on Facebook and Twitter, as a volunteer for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and BJP. He had involved himself with political campaigning after meeting Narendra Modi in 2010. During his first meeting, Modi asked him to make better use of social media for the party's political success.
What had Justice Kant and Justice Pardiwala said?
While hearing the former BJP leader's case, Justice Kant replied to her advocate Maninder Singh with, "She has threat or she has become a security threat? The way she has ignited emotions across the country. This lady is single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country."
"She should apologise to the whole country," Justice Kant had said during Nupur Sharma's hearing.
Her advocate said to Justice Kant that the first FIR was in Delhi to which Kant asked: "What has Delhi police done? Don't make us open our mouths? What was the TV debate for? Only fan an agenda? Why did they choose a sub-judice topic?"
Also Read | Unrelated Video Peddled As Nupur Sharma Arrested Over Anti-Prophet Remarks
Justice Kant had also said that Sharma's remarks show her obstinate and arrogant character. "What if she is the spokesperson of a party. She thinks she has backup power and makes any statement without respect to the law of the land," the judge had remarked.
Sharma had made disparaging remarks about Prophet Muhammad during a debate on Times Now television channel last month.
How can SC judges be impeached?
A judge may be removed from office through a motion adopted by Parliament on grounds of 'proven misbehaviour or incapacity'. While the Constitution does not use the word 'impeachment', it is colloquially used to refer to the proceedings under Article 124 (for the removal of a Supreme Court judge) and Article 218 (for the removal of a High Court judge).
The Constitution provides that a judge can be removed only by an order of the President, based on a motion passed by both Houses of Parliament. The procedure for removal of judges is elaborated in the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968.
The Act sets out that an impeachment motion may originate in either House of Parliament and in order to initiate the proceedings at least 100 members of Lok Sabha may give a signed notice to the Speaker, or at least 50 members of Rajya Sabha may give a signed notice to the Chairman. The Speaker or Chairman may consult individuals and examine relevant material related to the notice. Based on this, it will be decided to either admit the motion or refuse.
If the motion will be admitted, the Speaker or Chairman have to constitute a three-member committee to investigate the complaint. It will comprise a Supreme Court judge, a Chief Justice of a High Court and a distinguished jurist. After concluding its investigation, the Committee will submit its report to the Speaker or Chairman, who will then lay the report before the relevant House of Parliament. If the report records a finding of misbehaviour or incapacity, the motion for removal will be taken up for consideration and debated.
Motion for removal requires to be adopted by each House of Parliament where a majority of the total membership of that House and majority of at least two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting. If the motion is adopted by this majority, then the motion will be sent to the other House for adoption. After both houses adopt the motion, it gets presented before President and later he issues an order for the removal of the judge.
The people who have signed this particular change.org petition has cited many reasons for doing so.
"I am signing b/c the observation made by justice suryakant and pardiwala against Nupur sharma is against our constitution &fundamental right of citizens of India," one of them wrote. "...Because, they are behaving like an activist and not judge," wrote another person who signed the petition.
Some of them said Sharma's hearing was "biased" and they believe in "justice" for her. Some others supported Sharma's remarks on the Prophet and said that the statements made by justice Kant and Pardiwalla are against the "Constitution and the fundamental rights of citizens of India."
But this is not the only petition doing the rounds. Another one started by ARK N, demanding impeachment of the judges, has over 1,000 signatures. Another similar one started by Mehul Anand has a little over 50 signatures.
The backlash the SC judges are facing
On 4 July, a group of former High Court Judges, retired bureaucrats, and military veterans wrote an open letter to the Supreme Court which reads "The unfortunate comments have no parallel and are an indelible scar on the justice system of the largest democracy."
The veterans criticized oral statements by Justice Kant and Pardiwala during the hearing by saying that they were not "in sync with judicial ethos" and crossed the "Laxman Rekha". The letter was further sent to CJI NV Ramana.
Co-founder and Director of Brhat(a creative cultural research organization) Prakaj Sakena tweeted, "Justice' Surya Kant flouted all sense of justice & courtesy. He victim-shamed and dog-whistled Nupur Sharma endangering her life. Either he should unequivocally apologize or he has to be impeached. He is a threat to society."
On the day the Supreme Court made the observations, several hashtags including #BlackDayForIndianJudicary #SupremeCourtIsCompromised started trending on Twitter.
The Twitter handle of a media outlet called DoPolitics, with more than 82K followers, uploaded a video where the anchor criticised the statements of Justice Kant, with the hashtag #JusticeSuryaKantShameOnYou. The video has more than 298K views on Twitter. Another Twitter user shared a graphic image with the hashtag #ImpeachErrantSCjudges.
He tweeted, "For what Nupur Sharma should apologize, he should write to the court. And what Nupur Sharma said is wrong, then what is right, write it to the court. Whole India will apologize." The tweet has over 1,500 retweets. Another tweet which was more than 2,500 retweets reads, "Requesting @rashtrapatibhvn to initiate impeachment of the 2 Supreme Court judges - Kant & Pardiwala immediately, for supporting Jihadis! As per their logic, the Wright brothers are responsible for 9/11."