Soumitra Sen

New Delhi, Sept. 2: Attorney-general G.E. Vahanvati today advised the Lok Sabha secretariat to continue with the impeachment proceedings against Justice Soumitra Sen, saying his resignation letter was not in order.

The Centre was undecided tonight but the impeachment may still be abandoned if the judge resubmits his resignation the correct way — which Sen’s lawyer said would be done tomorrow.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal said a final decision could come only after the Lok Sabha secretariat received a resignation duly accepted by the President. Law minister Salman Khurshid too preferred to wait for a day before speaking on the issue.

Sources said Sen decided to resign after former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee failed to persuade the Congress to revisit the subject.

Somnath told The Telegraph: “I have learnt that the attorney-general has said Sen must be impeached. As a lawyer, I don’t find any logic for impeaching him in the Lok Sabha after he has resigned.”

Asked if Sen had sought his advice before resigning, Somnath said he hadn’t. “He must have done it finding no alternative. What would he do if he was targeted right from the start?”

Sen had faxed his resignation to President Pratibha Patil and sent a copy to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. The letter to Kumar was an assertion of innocence combined with the charge that he had not been given adequate opportunity to defend himself.

A formal resignation letter is not supposed to carry such arguments, case history or accusations. Besides, Sen had faxed his letter to the President. The rules say the letter had to be in his handwriting and not in copy form.

Sen’s lawyer Subhas Bhattacharyya said the judge had also sent his original handwritten letter to the President, which was expected to be delivered tonight, and would send a fresh one in the correct format tomorrow.

He said: “In his (original) letter, Justice Sen had highlighted several points other than mentioning his desire to tender resignation. To conform to the format, he is sending a one-line resignation letter, which will be hand-delivered tomorrow.”

President Patil had referred the faxed resignation to the justice department with the query whether it was in the proper form. The query came amid a debate among legal experts whether the Lok Sabha should proceed with the scheduled impeachment proceedings next Monday after Sen’s resignation.

Going by the Dinakaran precedent, resigning may not help Sen. Justice P.D. Dinakaran had resigned on July 28 alleging he was being targeted because of his caste.

His resignation came after the Supreme Court threw out his petition against a judges’ panel probing charges of land-grabbing and disproportionate assets against him. The court upheld his claim of bias against one member and directed that he be replaced, but refused to scrap the panel.

Although Dinakaran has since resigned, the panel is continuing the probe. Sources said Dinakaran (or his counsel) would have to answer the charges at the panel’s next hearing on September 10. The sources said the Rajya Sabha-appointed committee cannot ignore the House resolution asking it to probe the charges.

The impeachment proceedings against Sen too were initiated by the Rajya Sabha, which has since impeached him by an overwhelming majority after hearing him for over an hour.

Some legal experts, however, argue that Sen’s resignation renders the impeachment procedure infructuous. Others such as Ram Jethmalani cite the difference between resignation and sacking to insist that the proceedings should continue.

Impeachment is similar to sacking and will allow the Centre to deny Sen any post-retirement benefits and to start criminal proceedings, if necessary. But an acceptance of Sen’s resignation would entitle him to all his benefits.