MR. SPEAKER : Hon. Members, I have received on 28^th February, 1991, a notice of the following motion dated 27^th February , 1991 signed by Prof. Madhu Dandvate and 107 other Members of the House for presenting an address to the President of India for the removal of Justice

V. Ramaswamy of the Supreme Court of India, from the office of the Judge of the Supreme Court of India. Under Article 124(4) of the ' Constitution of India read with section 3 of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 ' :-

(1) That during his tenure as Chief Justice, Punjab and Haryana between November, 1987 and October 1989, Justice V. Ramaswamy personally got purchased carpets and furniture for his residence and for the High Court costing about Rs. 50 lakhs from public funds from hand-picked dealers at highly inflated price. This was done with out inviting public tenders and by privately obtaining a few quotations most of which were forged or bogus.

(2) That he also got payments made to hand-picked dealers for furniture and carpets ostensibly purchased for his residence which were never delivered.

(3) That he misappropriated some of the furniture, carpets and other items purchased from Court funds for is official residence costing more than Rs. 1,50,000 and did not account for the same at all.

(4) That he replaced several items of furniture, carpets and suitcases etc. of a value of more than Rs. 30,000 which had been purchased by him for his official residence from public funds, by old and inferior quality items, with the object of deriving undue benefit for himself.

(5) That he purchased from public funds more than Rs. 13 lakhs worth of furniture and other associated items for his official residence at Chandigarh even though he was entitled to furniture worth Rs. 38,500/- only. That in the process, he willfully evaded several rules, and sanctioned money for such purchases by splitting up bills .

(6) That he got purchased 25 silver maces for the High Court at a cost of Rs. 3,60,000 from a firm at this home town in Madras at highly inflated prices without inviting competitive quotations. This was done even after the other judges of the High Court had opposed the purchase of these maces on the ground that they were wholly unnecessary and appeared to be relic of the colonial past.

(7) That he misused public funds to the extent of Rs. 9.10 lakhs by making the court pay for non-official calls made on his residential telephones at Chandigarh during his 22-1/2 months in office as Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court.

(8) That he abused his authority as Chief Justice to make the Punjab and Haryana High Court pay Rs. 76,150 for even his residential telephones at Madras.

(9) That he misused his staff cars provided to him be taking them from Chandigarh to hill stations for vacations and to Madras for his son's wedding and spent more than Rs. one lakh of public money for paying for the petrol of these staff cars. He even got himself paid for false petrol bills and other bills relating to car repairs, etc.

(10) That he sanctioned as official the pleasure trips or the trips made for him own personal work by his sub-ordinate staff to places like Madras, Mussourie, Manali etc., even though there was no official work to de done in those places.

(11) That he gave four unjustified promotions each within 18 months to several members of the subordinate staff of the High Court whom he misused for aiding and abetting his above acts done for his personal gain.

Having found the motion in order, I have admitted the same. Pursuant to sub-section (2) of Section 3 of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, I have constituted for the purpose of making an investigation into the grounds on which the removal of Justice V. Ramaswamy is prayed for, a Committee consisting of the following 3 Members:-

1. Hon'ble Justice P. B. Sawant Supreme Court of India.
2. Hon'ble Justice P. D. Desai Chief Justice of the High Court of Bombay.
3. Hon'ble Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy, Former Judge of the Supreme Court of India.

The Committee shall submit its report as early as practicable. The motion shall remain pendingtill the report of the Inquiry Committee is received. (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: The House stands adjourned sine die.