Overview
- Delivering the operative order, Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma found no illegality in the Speaker’s decision and said Justice Yashwant Varma was not entitled to relief.
- The court rejected arguments that a joint panel was mandatory when notices were filed in both Houses, holding that the proviso did not apply because the Rajya Sabha motion was not admitted.
- It accepted that the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman could act during the Chairman’s vacancy to reject the notice, noting the Constitution does not permit a procedural vacuum.
- The three-member committee appointed by the Lok Sabha Speaker comprises Justice Aravind Kumar, Madras High Court Chief Justice M. M. Shrivastava, and senior advocate B. V. Acharya.
- Justice Varma has denied any cash recovery in a January 12 submission to the panel and is scheduled to appear before it on January 24, even as an earlier in-house inquiry had found misconduct.