New Delhi: On Congress and six other opposition parties’ motion for the removal of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, Rajya Sabha (RS) chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu started the consultation process with legal and parliamentary experts.

Vice President Naidu, one of the officials said, spoke to Attorney General KK Venugopal, former attorney general K Parasaran, former Supreme Court judge B Sudarshan Reddy, former law secretary PK Malhotra, former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash Kashyap, and former legislative secretary Sanjay Singh, among others, as he decides whether to admit or reject the notice given on April 20. It is the first-ever such submitted against a chief justice.

“Considering the urgency of the situation, the RS chairman advanced his return to the Capital from Hyderabad by a day following the unprecedented move by the 64 opposition MPs and seven retired MPs,” a second official said on condition of anonymity.

Former LS secretary general Subhash Kashyap confirmed the meeting with Naidu but declined to divulge details of what they spoke about. Giving his “personal opinion” on the matter, Kashyap said the notice does not seem to contain any substantial ground to prove that the CJI was involved in “misbehavior” and “misuse of authority” – two of the contentions cited by the Opposition.

“The notice for motion, which makes five allegations against the CJI, as reported in the media, uses words such as ‘likely’, ‘it appears’, ‘it may be…’ which are very vague. There is no prima facie case of misbehaviour to convince the RS chairman that the notice is not politically motivated,” Kashyap said.