(Top) Justice Soumitra Sen speaks during impeachment proceedings in the Rajya Sabha; (above) Sen leaves Parliament after the debate. Pictures on top right show him in various moods during his speech on Wednesday. Pictures by PTI and The Telegraph

1983: Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) files a money suit in Calcutta High Court against Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), urging the court to make an inventory of fire bricks (heat-resistant bricks used in furnaces) lying at Bokaro Steel Plant and sell them. (The stocks were imported by SCI for SAIL but rejected by the steel giant on the ground of poor quality)

April 30, 1984: The court appoints Soumitra Sen as a receiver to make an inventory of these goods, sell them and hold the proceeds till the case was decided

Jan. 20, 1993: The court directs Sen to deduct 5 per cent of sale price towards remuneration as receiver, keep the balance in a separate bank account in a bank of his choice and to hold the same free from lien or encumbrances, subject to further orders

April 1, 1993 to June 1, 1995: Sen receives sale amount of Rs 33.23 lakh, deducting his five per cent, Rs 1.66 lakh

1996: Sen keeps the entire money in fixed deposit in ANZ Grindlays (which later merged into Standard Chartered) and later transfers it to Lynx India Ltd, a company authorised by the RBI

Jan. 20, 1997: Another bench directs Sen to be receiver in another case and to hold Rs 70 lakh for distribution among workers of Calcutta Fans; Sen deposits this amount also in Grindlays

May 14, 1997 to Aug. 6, 1997: As receiver, Sen issues several cheques to workers

Feb. 26, 1997: Sen deposits Rs 25 lakh (from the Rs 70 lakh) with Lynx India, which sank. The shortfall is made up by taking Rs 25 lakh from the SAIL money and depositing in the Calcutta Fans account

Feb. 27, 2003: SAIL files an application in the high court, urging the receiver to hand over the entire sales proceeds and render true and faithful accounts

Dec. 3, 2003: Sen is appointed a judge in Calcutta High Court

Aug. 3, 2004: On SAIL’s application, Justice Kamal Mukherjee appoints new receiver without asking Sen to refund money lying with him

Feb. 15, 2005: Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta takes up the matter, issues notice to Sen as receiver

June 30, 2005: Sengupta orders an inquiry on what happened to the payments made to the receiver. The judge is told that the receiver never filed any accounts as required every six months

Nov. 1, 2005: Sen deposits Rs 5 lakh

April 10, 2006: Sengupta, on a petition from SAIL, directs Sen to repay Rs 57.65 lakh, which included interest of Rs 26.26 lakh. Sengupta makes several adverse remarks against Sen who goes on leave. Once the leave expires, no judicial work is allotted to Sen

June 27, 2006 to Sept. 5, 2006: Sen pays Rs 40 lakh

Sept. 14, 2006: Sen seeks more time to deposit the rest and is later granted time

Nov. 21, 2006: Sen pays the balance amount

Dec. 13, 2006: Sen seeks recall of April 10, 2006, order that made the adverse remarks

July 31, 2007: Justice Sengupta says he neither believes nor disbelieves Sen’s explanation and asks him to submit any fresh material he has

Sept. 25, 2007: Justices Pranab Kumar Chattopadhyay and Kalidas Mukherjee set aside the July 31, 2007, order and expunge remarks made on April 10, 2006. On appeal, the judges say there is no material to hold that Sen had misappropriated any amount or had made any personal gain

Dec. 3, 2007: Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan informs Sen that a three-member committee for in-house procedure has been constituted

Feb. 1, 2008: The in-house committee accuses Sen of breach of trust and misappropriation of receiver’s funds for personal gain. The committee is made of Justice A.P. Shah (then chief justice, Madras High Court, now retired), Justice A.K. Patnaik (chief justice, MP High Court, and now SC judge) and Justice R.M. Lodha (judge, Rajasthan High Court, and now SC judge). The in-house committee says Sen did not have honest intention since he mixed the money received as receiver and his personal money and converted the receiver’s money for his own use; and that there had been misappropriation (at least temporary) of the sales proceeds

Feb. 6, 2008: Chief Justice serves report on Sen and asks him to either resign or seek voluntary retirement

Feb. 25, 2008: Sen urges Chief Justice to reconsider decision

March 26, 2008: Sen refuses to either resign or voluntarily retire

Aug. 10, 2008: Chief Justice writes to the Prime Minister, urging him to initiate impeachment proceedings to remove Sen from office of judge

Feb. 27, 2009: Fifty-eight members of the Rajya Sabha move a motion seeking his impeachment

March 4, 2009: The Rajya Sabha refers Sen’s case to an inquiry panel of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy (SC judge, now retired), Mukul Mudgal (Punjab and Haryana High Court chief justice), and Fali S. Nariman

Sept. 10, 2010: The judges’ inquiry committee submits report to the Rajya Sabha chairman. The committee finds Sen guilty on two counts — misappropriation of money and misrepresentation of facts to the high court.

Compiled by Samanwaya Rautray on the basis of information sourced from the judges’ inquiry committee report