Hon’ble Members, I need to inform you that in December a motion under Article 124 was submitted for my consideration for removal of a judge of a High Court of Allahabad, that motion was purportedly from 55 members. I examined that and found that one particular member had signed at 2 places. The result was that the representation, the motion indicated that there are 55 members seeking removal but actually it was not 55 it was only 54.
So obviously an enquiry was conducted to find out from the member who had signed twice, allegedly. The Honourable member declined his second signature and that made the matter a little more serious because it was required of me then to get to the bottom of the issue and find out whether the representation was meriting consideration, and the process was initiated for verification of signatures and authentication. That process is under progress, I will get an update and come back to the house.
I have already indicated to this august house on an earlier occasion that if the requisite number of members who verify their signatures and the number goes above 50 or more, I would proceed and deal with the issue of a signature that has been twice there not owned by the member in a different manner because if a motion carries two signature of the same member and the Honourable member declines that he has not signed at two places but he has signed only at one place the matter becomes serious and culpable.
This august house has to set very high standards, if we do not live up to the highest expectations of the people then we will be putting things under the carpet and not subjecting them to deep investigation. I will discuss with the floor leaders as to what steps this house needs to take with respect to such kinds of transgressions.
I must also indicate to this august house that there was an occasion in this house where on seat number 222, a wad of rupees 500 notes was found. What is more surprising and deeply concerning is not that a wad of notes was found but no one has owned it, no one has claimed it, this is quite serious. I had asked the authorities to get into the matter seriously but it appears now that the matter will have to be dealt with and that too I will put before the floor leaders for further consideration and guidance.
