Calcutta high court judge Soumitra Sen resigned on Thursday, four days before the motion for his impeachment was to be taken up by the Lok Sabha.

The impeachment proceedings were slated to be taken up by the Lok Sabha on Monday and Tuesday and he has been informed that he can defend himself or through any lawyer before the motion, as passed against him by the Rajya Sabha on August 18, is taken up for discussion.

In what appeared to be the first case of impeachment and removal of a sitting judge on the ground of misconduct, Sen had been asked to appear before the bar of the house on Monday at 3 PM. He had been asked to confirm his appearance to explain why he should not be held guilty of misappropriating Rs 32.23 lakhs in a 1983 case as a court commissioner before becoming the judge.

The Rule Book provides for appearance of the judge facing impeachment only in the house in which the impeachment motion is brought and in this case it was the Rajya Sabha, but Lok Sabha Speaker heeded justice Sen's request to let him present his case. He may be allowed 90 minutes to two hours before the discussion begins on the motion, but not at the end of the discussion before voting as he wanted but not allowed in the Rajya Sabha.

The rules require impeachment by both the Houses of Parliament in the same session and that too by two-third majority of members present and the President has to approve the motion so passed by the two Houses in the same session to fulfil the Constitution's requirement for removing the judge. The session is only up to September 8 and as such the President's warrant removing the judge has to come by that date to be effective. The time may be extended if the session is extended by a week for the unfinished government agenda.

It is not clear who would have piloted the motion in the Lok Sabha as its original mover in the Rajya Sabha was CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechuri, but he can not sit in the Lok Sabha to pursue it. The speaker herself may put the motion for discussion on the secretary-general's report of the Rajya Sabha sending it for ratification.

Justice Sen's lawyer Subhash Bhattacharya is believed to have informed the Lok Sabha secretariat that the judge's son is not well and as such he could not respond to the Lok Sabha secretariat's communication.

The judge had gone public, expressing his unhappiness that he was not given a chance of rebuttal of the claims made by the members in the Rajya Sabha for impeaching him before the motion was put to vote and carried by 189 of the 206 members present in the 245-member House.

He could have tried rebutting the charges levelled on him in the Rajya Sabha, but the Rule Book does not permit any references to what transpired in the other house and that may be shown to him in the Lok Sabha if makes such an attempt. It would have been up to the speaker to consider his request to allow him a brief rebuttal after the debate, the secretariat sources said.