1993 (8) TMI 308

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.... manner that any member who abstained from voting should be deemed to have supported the Motion. It was also claimed that this Court may recommend for repeal of Article 124(4) of the Constitution as it has been rendered unworkable and nonfunctional and be substituted by an appropriate provision. Reliance was placed on Halsbury's Laws of England Vol. 10 and it was urged that although the Parliament was not strictly speaking a judicial body but its jurisdiction while exercising the right of vote on an Impeachment Motion is judicial, and, therefore, the refusal of the members of their abstaining from voting was an abdication of exercise of judicial power which may be set right judicially by assuming that those who abstained from voting sho....

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....he Bench held that the constitutional process upto the point of admission of Motion, Constitution of Committee and recording of findings. by the Committee were not proceedings in the Houses of Parliament. In our opinion proceedings for impeachment partake of judicial character because it is removal after inquiry and investigation. The statutory process appears to start when the Speaker exercises duty under the Judges Enquiry Act and comes to an end once the Committee appointed by the Speaker submits the report. The debate, on the motion thereafter in the Parliament the discussion and the voting appear more to be political in nature. Voting is formal expression of will or opinion by the person entitled to exercise the right on the subject or....

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....cle implies that the Motion shall be carried only if the requisite numbers expressed their opinion by casting vote in support of the Motion. One may be present and yet not voting. A reading of paragraph 1163 of Vol. 34 of Halsbury's Laws of England indicates that when division becomes necessary then the Speaker directs, those in support to go in the right lobby and those who oppose in left lobby. And, the members who take part in it pass through one or other of the lobbies, give their names to the clerks who sit at desks, and are counted by the tellers as they leave the respective lobbies. After at least six minutes have elapsed since the order for clearing the lobbies, the Speaker orders the doors giving access to the lobby to be locke....