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New Delhi: Two days after two notices signed by 193 opposition MPs to move an impeachment motion against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was rejected in both houses of parliament, the opposition on Wednesday (April 8) accused the presiding officer of conducting a “mini trial”, dismissing the motion at the admission stage and “telescoping” the entire impeachment process into one person’s “unilateral” view.

Addressing a joint press conference of opposition MPs, the Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the Supreme Court in the Justice Yashwant Verma case had laid down six stages for the impeachment process, but that in rejecting the notice to move the motion against Kumar, Rajya Sabha chair C.P. Radhakrishnan had “strangulated” the process and “telescoped” it so it could be narrowed down and decided by the presiding officer.

This goes against constitutional norms and avoids parliamentary scrutiny, he said.

“The court itemised that impeachment has roughly six stages. The problem with this order is that it ends everything at the first stage. It strangulates all the........

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