Chief Justice Commissioner Sonam Norbu Dagpo (center), Justice Commissioner Karma Damdul (left), and Justice Commissioner,Tenzin Lungtok (right), who have been relieved of their duties with immediate effect following an impeachment motion introduced by the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile in Dharamshala, India, on 25 March 2021.
Courtesy photos
By Lobsang Wangyal
McLEOD GANJ, India, 25 March 2021
The Tibetan Parliament-in-exile dismissed the Chief Justice Commissioner and the two other Justice Commissioners from their posts with immediate effect, for “infringing the rules”, bringing on a constitutional crisis.
The official impeachment of the Justices was passed in a secret balloting that had 31 members voting in favour of the motion, while 10 voted against it.
As the motion got more than two-thirds of the members in the House, the Chief Justice Commissioner Sonam Norbu Dagpo, Justice Commissioner Karma Damdul, and Justice Commissioner Tenzin Lungtok have been relieved of their duties with immediate effect.
The impeachment motion was introduced citing Clause 63 (IV) of the Charter of the Tibetans-in-exile, which pertains to the power of the House, that all matters related to Parliament will be resolved within the House without interference from the Judiciary.
In September last year, the Justices revoked voting rights of the 11 Standing Committee members of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile for cancelling the 10th session of the House to be held in September. The cancellation was in consideration of the worsening coronavirus infections around the world.
After taking a suo moto [taking action on their own] review of the cancellation of the session, the Justices found the decision violated the Article 40 of the exile Tibetan Charter, which said there must be a session of the Parliament every six months.
The Justices, quoting Article 69 (IX) of the rules of Supreme Justice in taking the suo moto review, pronounced the cancellation of the September session as a violation of rules, and then penalised the 11 members by revoking their voting rights. The Parliament however argued that implementation of Article 69 (IX) was unconstitutional, and superceded the Charter.
The 11 members were unable to vote in the 3 January preliminary round of the 2021 Tibetan elections, as their voting rights had been banned till 11 March.
A constitutional crisis has arisen following the event, as the new Chief Justice must be appointed by a committee headed by the Chief Justice Commissioner and others.
Speaking to Tibet Sun, the Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament Pema Jungney said, “The decision to dismiss the three Justices is based on facts. We stand by the decision of the House.”
Regarding the confusion over appointing the new Chief Justice Commissioner, Jungney said that the House will amend the Charter in the next few days to resolve the vacuum. “A committee will be formed to draft the amendment procedures, and within one and half month there will be final rules for appointment of a new Chief Justice.”
In two months there will be a new Tibetan leader, known as Sikyong, who will be taking oath of office from the Chief Justice Commissioner.
The three Justices Dagpo, Damdul, and Lungtok are expected to convene a press conference tomorrow.
The speaker Pema Jungney and Acharya Yeshi Phuntsok are the two rogue elements who should be held mainly responsible for this present situation. They have done a great disservice to the Tibetan people, and what they did was against the spirit of Tibetan unity and charter of freedom.
They have destroyed and broke one of the indispensable pillars of democracy. The present situation could have been resolved without resorting to such a desperate measure. I regret to say that the decision made by the Chitue was very wrong, and may have certainly disappointed His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other Tibet support groups.
I understand that many of these Chithues are unworthy of this high office and should resign in the greater interest of our nation. They proved to be unwise and highly irresponsible at such critical time. It is a disgraceful and immoral to have lawmakers in exile parliament. Why not impeach the speaker and the Acharya Babu?
This is brave and bold leadership shown by Speaker Pema Jungney. He is an expert on the Tibetan charter. He showed courage and in the process, protected the legislative body from infringement from politically motivated individuals with no expertise in law.
This impeachment will go down in Tibet’s history as a breakthrough in Tibetan democracy and Speaker Pema Jungney’s name will shine bright.
Pema Jungney literally threatened possible impeachment of future Sikyong yesterday!!
Please think over, TPIE may impeach anybody who will not kowtow to them.
If the Justice Commissioners were wrong in punishing Pema Jungney and his groups in cancelling the parliament session, then why should Pema Jungney and his cohorts bring in amendments now?!!!!
Pema Jungney is acting like a gunda!!!
Please DON’T VOTE for Pema Jungney now. If possible, identify other Chithues involved in firing Justices and fire them by NOT voting for them.
The decision should not have been taken in haste. At least the Parliament should have let the Justice commissioners to share their side of the story before impeachment. Speaker and his gang were so much in haste to do the impeachment. What did we gain from this decision? How will we move forward now? Who can intervene to check the power of Parliament now that judiciary is incapacitated so unceremoniously without a fair hearing? This decision has set a dangerous precedence for our democracy.
I am with the Justice Commissioners! Salute your service and courage for upholding our constitution from Lalu Prasad parliament.
Why did our Harvard Law graduate Sikyong did not intervene in this impeachment process? He was just enjoying the show with not care in the world.
very irresponsible sikyong.
Impeach Pema Jungney, Acharya Yeshi Phuntsok and all the Standing Committee members or make them undergo one year intensive legal training to qualify them as legislators.
Shame on them!
Tsokto Pema Jungney lied in the Parliament about not receiving the amendment notice from Supreme Justice Commission. The three commissioners had proof of receipt.
Who will account Tsokto Pema Jungney for lying in the parliament and misleading the parliament members with disinformation? Like neice Dhardon Sharling who lied about her age to gain kalon seat, Tsoktso Pema Jungney too has no shame about lying in parliament to impeach the commissioners.
We cannot trust the Tibetan parliament now which is led by a liar tsoktso!
Burmese military suspended parliament in the military coup.
Tibetan justice commissioner suspended parliament, in any other country this would be called a coup. Chithue members are elected by the people, they represent the people who voted for them and the parliament is the people’s house. How dare these power hungry justice department people act like dictators.
Sonam Lhamao, get your facts right!
It was Pema Jungney and his cohorts who suspended the parliament session of Sept 2020. The Commissioners were doing the opposite. They told Pema Jungney and his group that the session should not be suspended. Later they had to pass order withdrawing Pema Jungney and his cohorts’ right to vote for not organizing the parliament session.
Instead the Commissioners should have ordered to withdraw their right to contest election for eternity. It would have been a good riddance.
Came back from listening the press conference of the Justice Commissioners. Very angry with the Parliament tsoktso and those chithues for revenge politics!
We demand impeachment of the tsoktso and those 31 chithus who voted to impeach our Justice Commissioners! Don’t misuse power that is granted to you by the public.
These three commissioners are some of the longest serving bureaucrats in CTA with immense experiences and sincere commitment to serve our cause at this critical juncture. They are among the best of the best CTA officials. Such a loss to publicly humiliate them like this for Chithue’s own violation of laws and their lack of understanding of legal process.
I sincerely believe our parliament speaker, deputy speaker and the Standing Committee members did not take a fair decision by impeaching them.
Justice for our Justice Commissioners!
This impeachment came with two thirds majority. It’s hard to get that kind of numbers unless there is an overwhelming evidence of breach of power. The interpretation of law and amendment by upset citizen does not hold up. The judiciary cannot cancel an entire parliament session without a vote by legislative arms. Cancellation of parliament only happens in situation such as a coup. So what the justice commissioner and his cronies did were very wrong exercise of power and without punitive actions, this could have implication for governance in the future.
Oh please! Get your facts right!! Spend sometime to understand the entire case. It seems you haven’t even have heard any side at all.
11 member Standing committee of the Tibetan Parliament cancelled the parliament session citing Covid-19 not the Judiciary. Judiciary punished the standing committee because they cancelled the session.
Thank you to the members of Chithue for using their discretion. The Chief Justice commissioner and his cronies were acting like dictators. There are three branches of government for a reason, for balance of power. No one part of government should act like dictators. We welcome this decision. We have a constitution for a reason.
What can you expect from Pema Jungney? After all, he is disgrace Dadon Sharling’s uncle. Period. Forget about acharya Yeshi Phuntsok. Lalu Prasad of our Tibetan politics. The vote count in the Sikyong preliminary speaks the volume of his worthiness. All thanks to LS and his regime. LS put the 60+ yrs of hard work by HHDL and our ancestors into ‘Recycle Bin.’ If Kaydor is elected, he will move the file from ‘Recycle Bin’ to ‘Delete Forever’.
The the editor
Article 69 has only two clauses while you have stated Art 69(IX) in one of the paragraph. Please shed some light. Others can also help because the online version in English of charter that I have only has two clauses.
This is absolutely astonishing!! So sad that we have come to this sorry state. Pema Jungney rammed down his ego on responsible and rational arguments of Mingyur Dorjee, Dolma Tsering, Sonam Norbu and Karma Geleck.
Court can’t rule on the proceedings of the house but can certainly pass order if any decision of the house goes against the charter/constitution. It is court and only the court which has the authority to interpret the constitution.
Pema Jungney misrepresented the facts and didn’t address the valid concerns raised by Karma Geleck. It was apparent that this Pema Jungney’s melon size ego was hurt when the Justices didn’t entertain his tantrums.
Acharya and few others may become jobless soon. So, they are trying to create vacancies for themselves.
The Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission erred only on one point. They shouldn’t have suspended the voting rights of these lampoons. Instead should have ruled to never let them stand in any election at all.
It is very shocking to know that the members of exile parliament have acted in the most irresponsible manner by removing the members of Justice Commission. They have not been mandated by the people to throw entire judicial mechanism into disarray. These elected representatives are not capable enough to foresee the repercussion of their ill thought decision. They have created this mess without realizing its ripple effects on the Tibetan polity.
The question is whether the Chithues has the wisdom and desire to serve people or not? Are they really deserving people to occupy this high position in exile parliament? Are they bunch of fools? The Chithues has disowned and let us down by making wrong course of action.
It’s sad and disheartening when such things happening in our small society. It’s completely a mere egotistical decision by Chithue. What we can expect from these uneducated irrelevant members.. they look good in discussing silly topics like branded bags or else giving importance to social media persons in parliament session. Look at the standard? Don’t we have important issues to talk and discuss?
Really sad day!
Pema Jungney seemed too excited to do the impeachment.
Are there any laws in our constitution that allows us public to impeach our elected chithus for misbehavior and dirty politics?
Yes on April 11, we can show them that they don’t deserve to be in that scared place.
Remember to vote out those 31 Chitues. Especially those thugs in monk’s dress.
They can not keep doing the puppet/monkey drama. We need to show them that people are watching and we’re not fools.
Don’t reflect them. That’s it.
Pema Jungney, the CULPRIT, and the SILLIEST. He is a paper, can easily be blown to the other side of the neighborhood. He doesn’t deserve to be re-elected. I strongly appeal to all his constituents to refrain from voting in his favor. It is better for us without him in the Tibetan parliament.
I too want to impeach few MPs from Tibetan parliament.
We elected them to power. We also have the power to impeach MP
A sad day for our democracy. It is very unfortunate that misusing power to settle personal scores in the name of upholding the authority of the Charter is a dangerous trend. Our Parliament has earned the notoriety of being the only Parliament in the world that has behaved like a bully to sack all the three judges at one go. This is nothing but political vendetta. There are other ways to show their displeasure at the Supreme Justice Commission’s decisions deemed not proper by the Parliament. Let us not make our young democracy laughing stock of the world.
Not a solution-oriented decision. Just a clash of egos amongst the CTA titans
With Yeshi Phunstok, the Bihari Lalu Prasad type politician nothing good is expected. He is the main person instigated by the Amdowa turned Khampa Serta Tsultrim. It is also a blemish that will forever tarnish the image of Pema Jungney. True face of Deputy Speaker Archya Yeshi Phunstok can be discern if you search for YouTube with the title “Archarya Yeshi Phunstok is going crazy”
It will show anyone how punny and vindictive this monk is.
I fully agree with above three comments and find it difficult to comprehend and accept such drastic use of powers to silence the judiciary officials without any investigation on both sides. This is not a small matter to be taken lightly and looks more like a power struggle and paying back.
We should refrain from such actions and rather discuss and find solutions. It confuses us and distracts everyone from our main goal. Instead of discussing what we can do for our people, for our cause and devising future plans, the legislative Assembly is engaging in all sorts of ways to suppress our own people – telling them to do this, do that, no expensive bags and cars, questioning if it’s alright to say bhod gyalo or free Tibet. Why should you and we waste our precious time on these petty things? We have a slogan – Time is running out for Tibet! So, I don’t understand you guys. We have elected you to do the job on our behalf and we will follow you. But on the contrary, throughout this sessions what one can hear is either attacking each other or suppressing us by dos and don’ts.
As I watched today’s session, what I noticed was that tsoktso la was addressing this issue in a very emotional and trembling voice. As if he is enraged by this whole matter of justice revoking their decision. One cannot be rational if one is not free from personal feelings. And as a president of the parliament one should always keep our tibetan cause in the mind and lead us in a path or try to create an exile community, where we can trust each other as we once used to do. Now, what we all do is criticise each other, pointing out the shortcomings on social media and settle the scores!
Very very disappointed!
As a responsible Tibetan I would like my Chitues to focus on their time and discussions on improving protecting our vulnerable senior Tibetans who needs assistance with health care, mental issues; improving the Tibetan School System; other social issues in the Tibetan communities. It is futile to focus on disrupting the Central Administration and its personnel.
The parliamentarians should have, instead, passed an amendment to the article to which Supreme Justice commission based their decision to ban the 11 members from voting.
In balance of power, the final say in the interpretation of law lies with the Judiciary branch and they were in their right (correctness) to the interpretation of article and Parliament is in no way the final body in the interpretation of Law.
Therefore, this act of relieving the justice points to personal revenge and act of undermining one branch over another.
They could have passed a new resolution in amending the said clause of the law to accommodate special circumstances like the pandemic to avoid future conflict or misunderstanding of such article.
Obviously, the Laws written in first attempts are not perfect, that is why we’ve amendments over amendments to accommodate changing circumstances. But our 31 lawmakers failed to understand such a simple thing about law-making.
Our system was running very low on Moral ground since the election of LS. I thought we were in the lowest level of ethics and morality but thank you 31 MPs, you showed us that we can go further deeper in to the lowest levels of morality.
I absolutely agree with the upset US Citizen that an amendment would have been a good solution otherwise it does look like Chitue is taking revenge on the Judiciary’s action earlier.