Justice Soumitra Sen could face impeachment

New Delhi : Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court has been found guilty of misappropriating public funds and making false statements by a three-member Rajya Sabha inquiry panel and he could be the first Indian judge to be impeached.

The report was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Justice Sen could be the first judge to be impeached in India.

Justice Sen’s lawyer Subhash Bhattacharya told a TV channel: “We will follow the law. There will be debate in Parliament.”

“There is no question of misappropriation since the money is lying in the link. We will be fighting it in Parliament,” he said.

The probe panel, which included legal bigwig Fali Nariman, was set up in March 2009 following a demand from several MPs, including the vocal Left MP Sitaram Yechury, who asked for Sen’s dismissal.

Yechury on Wednesday said both the houses of Parliament has to be involved if Justice Sen was to be impeached.

Justice Sen, who took over as a judge of the Calcutta High Court in Dec 2003, was appointed as receiver of the court in 1984 in a civil case when the alleged misappropriation took place, a charge denied by the judge.

He was to keep the fund he was in charge in a separate bank account but he allegedly kept it in his own savings accounts, reports said.