New Delhi: Justice Soumitra Sen has resigned a few days ahead of the Lok Sabha taking up the motion to remove him. The Calcutta High Court Judge has sent his resignation letter to President Pratibha Patil.

On August 18, the Rajya Sabha had by a huge margin approved the motion of his removal on the charges of misappropriation of funds when he was a lawyer.

But he claimed that he was innocent, and was made a sacrificial lamb to cleanse the judiciary.

In his letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Justice Sen said that no one either from the Bar or from the Civil Society has raised any complaint regarding his integrity honesty and competence regarding discharging judicial functions.

“There is no complaint against me even today regarding my conduct as a Judge while discharging my judicial functions or my conduct as a judge outside the Court,” said Justice Sen in his letter.

“I am not guilty of any form of corruption, there is no allegation against me that I am guilty of passing any order or judgment for extraneous consideration or that I have abused my power in any way so that my family or relatives or acquaintances have amassed wealth,” Justice Sen in his letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker said.

Charges against Justice Sen:

Justice Sen is guilty of misappropriating sale proceeds to the tune of Rs 24 lakh in a case in 1984 where he was appointed as receiver by the Calcutta High Court. He was an advocate at that time. He was later directed to deposit Rs 52 lakh by the High Court. He had allegedly unauthorisedly taken out Rs 25 lakh from another account and invested it elsewhere.

On December 3, 2003 he was appointed to the Calcutta High Court as a judge.

He had later paid back the money but in-house committee in its February 6, 2008 report had found him guilty of “breach of trust and misappropriation of receiver’s funds for his personal gain”.

On March 16, 2008 the Supreme Court Collegium gave a personal hearing to Justice Sen and advised him to resign or take voluntary retirement. But Justice Sen failed to comply.

The then Chief Justice of India of India KG Balakrishnan had written to the Prime Minister on August 4, 2008 suggesting the Justice Sen be removed.

The motion to remove was pending against Justice Sen since February 2010. A three-member committee headed Supreme Court judge Justice B Sudershan Reddy in its report of September 2010 found Justice Sen “guilty of misbehaviour”.

The Justice Reddy Committee found Justice Sen guilty of collecting Rs 33,22,800 from a purchaser of goods, keeping it in a savings bank account and misrepresenting facts to the High Court.

The report was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on November 10, 2010.