At least 60 Opposition MPs submitted a notice seeking removal of Dhankhar, accusing him of conducting proceedings of the House in a “partisan manner”. Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh rejected the impeachment notice moved by the INDIA bloc against House chairperson Jagdeep Dhankhar, calling it to be “bereft of facts” and aimed at securing “publicity”.
At least 60 Opposition MPs of the INDIA bloc on December 10 submitted a notice seeking removal of Dhankhar. “ALL parties belonging to the INDIA group have had no option but to formally submit a no-confidence motion against the learned Hon’ble Chairman of the Rajya Sabha for the extremely partisan manner in which he has been conducting the proceedings of the Council of States,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh had said.
In his ruling, the deputy chairperson said that the impeachment notice is a part of the “design to denigrate the nation’s constitutional institutions and malign the incumbent Vice President.” “A look at the notice reveals it couldn’t be more casual and cavalier, wanting on every conceivable aspect and severely flawed–the absence of the addressee, absence of resolution text, incumbent Vice President’s name not correctly spelt in the entire petition, documents and videos asserted not made part, premised on links of disjointed media reports without authentication and many more,” the ruling.
“Worrisomely for the prestige of Parliament and its members, the notice is replete with assertions only to malign the incumbent Vice President asserting events from the time he assumed office in August 2022,” the deputy chairman said.
‘Deliberate trivialising and demeaning of the office of V-P’: RS deputy chairman
“The gravity of this personally targeted notice bereft of facts and aimed at securing publicity makes it expose expedient, being misadventure in deliberate trivialising and demeaning of the high constitutional office of Vice President of the largest democracy,” the ruling added.
While rejecting the notice, the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman said,”In view of the above the notice is held as an act of impropriety, severely flawed, apparently drawn in haste and hurry to mar the reputation of the incumbent Vice President and aimed to damage the constitutional institution. The same deserves to be and is hereby dismissed.”