A massive pushback erupted on Friday against the impeachment motion moved by over 100 MPs seeking the removal of Justice G R Swaminathan of the Madras High Court. More than 50 former judges, including retired Supreme Court judges and former Chief Justices of several High Courts, issued a blistering letter condemning the move. They called it “a brazen attempt to browbeat judges.”

In the strongly worded statement, the former judges said the effort to impeach Justice Swaminathan over his ruling in the Karthigai Deepam lamp-lighting case “would cut at the very roots of our democracy and the independence of the judiciary.” They said even if the reasons cited by MPs were taken at face value, they were “wholly inadequate” to warrant such an “exceptional and serious constitutional measure.”

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