New Delhi, June 10, 2025 (ANI): On the removal of Justice Yashwant Verma, senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal said that the steps to remove Justice Yashwant Verma on the basis of an in-house enquiry report will be "unconstitutional", adding that a precedent like this will be a "huge" danger for judicial independence. Talking to ANI, Sibal said, "Kiren Rijiju is trying with the opposition parties that they should come together, to remove Justice Yashwant Verma... If they do so, we will oppose that. We warn the government that any such step will be unconstitutional. Such a precedent will be a huge danger for judicial independence... It's an indirect way of controlling the judiciary. It is dangerous to bypass the Judges' Enquiry Act... Those who are in a higher position are fulfilling their responsibility a bit slowly."
00:00I can't say that in any court, the chairman can't say that you can decide how many days, how many years, how many years, how many years, how many years, how many years you can decide.
00:06Because this is the right thing, and in the same way, it's not written in the same way, how many years you can decide.
00:15So, these are the two things that are happening in the case of Yashvant Verma.
00:22You say that in the public domain, you don't write it in the case, but in the case of Shaker Yadav's case, you don't write it in the case.
00:29So, this is, according to me, very unfortunate. And in fact, it smacks of discrimination.
00:42For if it is your case that having found out in the public domain that an in-house procedure was going on,
00:58and therefore, since a petition was pending before you for impeachment, the Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha decided to write and inform the Chief Justice of India that that motion is pending,
01:13and therefore, you shouldn't go forward with your in-house procedure.
01:18Whereas we all know that the in-house procedure has nothing to do with the impeachment motion, and that impeachment motion has not even been admitted so far.
01:28We filed the impeachment motion on December 13, 2024, and we are in June 2025. Six months have passed, and the Secretariat has not yet verified,
01:38Secretariat of the Rajya Sabha has not yet verified 55 signatures. How long does that take?
01:44I asked the Secretariat of the Secretariat of the Secretariat of the Secretariat of the Rajya Sabha. How long does that take? And how long will it take? And how long will you be delaying this?
01:56Because your intent of this government is to save Sheikh Haryada for what he said, which was entirely communal.
02:03When he made this speech on 8th of December, 2024, and the Chief Justice of India decided to start an in-house procedure to find out as to what the stand of Sheikh Haryada was.
02:18He was called. He was asked as to whether he had given this speech. Of course, that he couldn't deny. And after that, when, obviously, the government thought that this would go further and the in-house procedure would start,
02:33especially when the Ilaba, Chief Justice of the Ilaba High Court gave a negative report, and there were other complaints also against Sheikh Haryada.
02:43So, knowing that this would lead to deep embarrassment, they decided to protect Sheikh Haryada. And therefore, they have delayed the signature campaign.
02:55They have delayed the verification of signatures. And this will go on and on and on till he retires in 2026, early 2026. This is very unfortunate.
