New Delhi, Sep 1: Justice Soumitra Sen's resignation as the judge of the Calcutta High Cour ahead of impeachment motion in the Lok Sabha, has sent the ball in President's court with experts saying she has to decide whether to accept his resignation or leave it to the Lower House to proceed with the removal procedure.
The choice is of the President whether to accept the resignation or keep it pending for the process of removal to be complete, said noted jurist Ram Jethmalani and former Lok Sabha General Secretary Subhash C Kashyap.
Slightly differing with them was former Chief Justice of India V N Khare and Constitutional expert Anil Divan who said "President is bound to accept the resignation unless there is something against him" and that the motion becomes infructuous on resignation of a judge.
"If his resignation is accepted immediately, then there is no question of removal. Where is the question of removal if he has already gone out ?" said Divan adding that "As far as removal is concerned, it becomes infructuous since he is no more a judge. What is the point of removing a non-existent judge, if he has already resigned."
The view was shared by Khare, who said "there should be a relation between the motion of removal and his office".
However, Kashyap said, "it is a grey area whether in all cases, the President has to accept the resignation." PTI
