India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Burma’s parliamentarians have forced out all nine judges of a constitutional court, intensifying a long-running row between the government, parliament and the judiciary. The impeachment was supported by the governing USDP, which has close ties to the military, as well as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party. According to reports from the state media, President Thein Sein has accepted the resignations of the judges. The current row erupted in March when the court issued an order limiting the power of parliamentary committees and commissions to summon ministers for questioning, BBC reports. According to the report, by voting to impeach all nine judges of the constitutional court, MPs have directly challenged Article 324 of the Constitution which states that the court's rulings on the Constitution are final. More than two-thirds of the lower house backed the impeachment, which was approved by the upper house last month. Soe Win Than of the BBC's Burmese Service said this standoff is the first of its kind in Burma since the recent reform process began. According to the report, the situation also highlights how the democratic institutions are still defining their roles in the new Burma after years of military rule, our correspondent adds.

Burmese constitutional court judges forced to quit