VCK president Thirumavalavan urges Speaker to act on impeachment notice

CHENNAI: VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan on Wednesday urged the Lok Sabha Speaker to promptly initiate action on the impeachment notice submitted against Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madras High Court. He said more than 100 MPs had signed and submitted the notice seeking the judge's removal.

In the statement, he urged the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court not to allocate any further cases to Justice Swaminathan in the present circumstances. With an impeachment notice pending, he said the judge should voluntarily step down to allow an unhindered inquiry.

Thirumavalavan said that under parliamentary procedure, the Speaker must constitute an inquiry committee comprising a Supreme Court judge, a Chief Justice of a High Court and a legal expert to examine the allegations. The VCK, he said, insisted that the committee be formed without delay.

He said the impeachment notice listed several charges, including that the judge had acted in a partisan manner, violated constitutional principles, supported a particular lawyer and misused his authority in favour of a particular caste group. Allowing him to continue hearing cases, he said, would lead to further complications in Tamil Nadu, and the order passed on Tuesday was evidence of this.

He criticised the judge for summoning the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary, the DGP and the Union Home Secretary in a contempt of court case, despite the matter having no relevance to them. He said, adding that the Union Home Secretary in particular raised questions about intent. "What role does the Union Home Secretary have here? What does the judge expect from him?" he asked, calling the order an overreach of authority and an act that undermined both the State and Union governments.