The Supreme Court on Monday said that Rajya Sabha rules prohibit legislators from making public statements on the removal of a judge of the higher judiciary without any notice in Parliament, PTI reported.

Earlier on Monday, two Congress Rajya Sabha MPs moved the top court against the House’s rejection of the impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. The MPs’ petition claimed that once the motion initiating the CJI’s removal is signed by the requisite number of MPs, the vice president has to constitute an inquiry committee to investigate the allegations against the chief justice of India.

The Supreme Court was hearing a plea seeking to restrain MPs from making public statements on the removal of a judge without any notice in Parliament. “Rajya Sabha rules also prohibit such statements,” Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said.

Senior advocate Meenakshi Arora, appearing for petitioner NGO In Pursuit of Justice, said the plea was concerned with the “times to come”. “Why do you feel that such a time will come again and again?” the court responded, adding that there was no urgency to hear the plea right now.

The bench posted the matter for hearing for the third week of July.

On April 20, Opposition parties submitted a notice to Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to initiate impeachment proceedings against Misra under five listed grounds of misbehaviour. The motion was signed by 71 parliamentarians.

On April 23, Naidu had rejected the notice. He said he had considered each of the five allegations against Misra “individually as well as collectively” and concluded that the notice did not “deserve to be admitted”.