New Delhi — A group of 56 former Supreme Court and High Court judges on Friday strongly opposed the move by over 100 opposition MPs to initiate impeachment proceedings against Justice G.R. Swaminathan for his verdict in the Tirupparankundram Deepam case. In a sharply worded statement titled “Statement of Solidarity and Call to Protect Independence of Judiciary,” the former judges urged MPs to reject the notice and prevent it from advancing any further.
The signatories — including former Supreme Court judges Justice Adarsh Goel and Justice Hemant Gupta — called the attempt a direct assault on judicial independence. They urged lawmakers across party lines, the legal fraternity, civil society and citizens to “unequivocally denounce” the move.
“This is a brazen attempt to browbeat judges who do not fall in line with the ideological and political expectations of a particular section of society. If such an attempt is permitted to proceed, it would cut at the very roots of our democracy,” the statement said.
The notice for Justice Swaminathan’s removal was submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla earlier this week, following criticism from the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government over his order allowing the lighting of a traditional lamp near a dargah on a hillock in the state.
The former judges emphasised that judges are accountable only to their oath and the Constitution, not to “partisan political pressures or ideological intimidation”. They argued that even if the MPs’ reasons were assumed to be true, they still fell far short of justifying an extraordinary measure like impeachment.
Drawing parallels with the Emergency-era attempts to undermine the judiciary, the former judges cited the supersession of senior Supreme Court judges after the Kesavananda Bharati judgment and the sidelining of Justice H.R. Khanna following his famous dissent in ADM Jabalpur. Such events, they said, serve as reminders of how political interference can damage judicial independence.
They also pointed out that the current attempt is part of a larger pattern. Past instances — including the unprecedented 2018 attempt to impeach then-CJI Dipak Misra and targeted campaigns against Chief Justices Ranjan Gogoi, S.A. Bobde, D.Y. Chandrachud, and now incumbent CJI Surya Kant — showed repeated efforts to intimidate the higher judiciary whenever politically inconvenient decisions were delivered.
“This is not principled, reasoned criticism of judicial decisions; it is an attempt to weaponise impeachment and public calumny as instruments of pressure,” the statement said, warning that such actions strike at the heart of constitutional democracy.
The former judges stressed that impeachment is meant to protect judicial integrity, not to be used as a tool of “arm-twisting, signalling and retaliation.” Turning the threat of removal into political leverage, they said, is “anti-democratic, anti-constitutional, and an anathema to the rule of law.”
They cautioned that targeting one judge today could endanger the entire judicial institution tomorrow. “In a Republic governed by the rule of law, judgments are tested by appeals and legal critique — not by threats of impeachment for political non-conformity,” they asserted.
The statement was signed by five former High Court Chief Justices: Justice Anil Deo Singh, Justice Narasimha Reddy, Justice P.B. Bajanthri, Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice Permod Kohli.
