A day after the Rajya Sabha voted for his impeachment, Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta high court in an interview with CNN-IBN said he was disappointed and shocked. "The Rajya Sabha gave me an unfair trial," justice he said. He also said that if the Lok Sabha does not reconsider the Rajya Sabha resolution, he'll move the Supreme Court.
Justice Sen said he was given an hour-and-half to speak and then members discussed over six hours without providing him a chance of rebuttal. Justice Sen said that the vital piece of evidence on which the whole case of misappropriation stands was misconstrued by Arun Jaitley. "It said that I provided the bank account through my mother which is false the account details were provided by the bank itself to the judges' enquiry committee the bank made a mistake," he alleged.
Justice Sen said he will stand before the Lok Sabha and rebut the charges with facts and evidences.
"As a member of the higher judiciary I felt that I should not defend myself before the media, I have and still have complete faith in the system. But now I have decided to speak because I find that the proceedings before the house are not really proceedings for impeachment but a proceeding for busting the judiciary and issues are different from impeachment," he said.
Justice Sen said that the government was casting aspersions on the entire judicial system while the real issues were being swept under the carpet. "There are corruption issues relating to thousands of crores and you are talking of Rs 32 lakh of alleged misappropriation which has been cleared by a division bench order?"
When asked about members of Parliament questioning the mode of judges' recruitment Justice Sen said, "It reasserts my stand. It is a power game that's being fought in the higher levels of Indian democracy as to who is superior, the judiciary or the legislation. I am an easy target because I don't have a lobby and I am not into politics."
"The Rajya Sabha conclusion has only made me more resolute. I will stand before the Lok Sabha and defend my case with facts and evidences," he said.
"As a junior law officer there may have been errors in handling of the account but I am not guilty of misappropriation. If the Lok Sabha does not reconsider the Rajya Sabha resolution, then I'll move the Supreme Court I'll carry this fight forward till the last breath of my life," Justice Sen said.
