Oppn notice seeking removal of Dhankhar dismissed by RS deputy chairman

New Delhi: The opposition's impeachment notice, which sought to remove Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, was dismissed by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh on Thursday. According to sources, he ruled that the notice was an act of impropriety, being severely flawed and drawn in haste to mar his reputation, sources said.

In his ruling, which was tabled in the House by Rajya Sabha Secretary General P C Mody, the deputy chairman said the impeachment notice is part of a design to denigrate the nation's constitutional institutions and malign the incumbent Vice President, the sources said.

At least 60 opposition members had signed the notice for removal of Dhankhar from his post on December 10, alleging that they did not have trust in him and that he was "biased". The notice was moved by the opposition members under Article 67(b) of the Constitution as an intention of a no-confidence motion against the Vice President of India, PTI reported.

The deputy chairman ruled that the gravity of this "personally targeted" notice is bereft of facts and aimed at securing publicity.

He also held that the notice was a "misadventure" in "deliberate trivialising and demeaning" of the high constitutional office of the Vice President of the largest democracy.

Worrisomely for the prestige of Parliament and its members, the notice is replete with assertions only to malign the incumbent Vice President, the deputy chairman ruled, the sources added.

The deputy chairman in his ruling said the notice invoked Article 67(b) peremptorily mandates 'at least 14 days' prior notice for any resolution contemplating the Vice President's removal.

Thus the December 10, 2024 notice of intention could permit such a resolution only after December 24, 2024, he noted, adding that the current 266th session of the Council of States, as notified on November 6, 2024, commenced on November 25 and is scheduled to conclude on December 20, 2024, as known to all signatories.

In full knowledge of the situation that the resolution cannot be brought during this session, this was initiated only to set a narrative against the second highest constitutional office and the Vice President, the deputy chairman said in his ruling.

Harivansh also said the notice's "lack of bona fides", and subsequent events unfolding revealed, "it being a calculated unwholesome attempt to garnish publicity; run down the constitutional institution; insinuate the the personal image of the incumbent Vice President- notably, the first from the agricultural community to hold this office in the history of independent India".

Sources said the deputy chairman has also ruled that the prejudicial intent manifested through the orchestration of a coordinated media campaign, including a televised press conference initiated by the LoP and Chief whip of the Indian National Congress, the main opposition party, on December 12, 2024.

They added that the impeachment notice was "an attempt to set afloat a narrative as if the authority was sitting over the notice of intention and thereby not discharging expectedly".

The deputy chairman ruled that constitutionally after the intention of the notice to bring a resolution seeking removal of the Vice President has been initiated, those taking such step had to move the resolution after 14 days, with no step called for from any quarter.

Sources said Harvivansh also ruled that this coupled with the Leader of Opposition's subsequent 10-point social media input on December 12, 2024, apart from being distanced from institutional decorum, "forces a conclusion to be part of a design to denigrate nation's constitutional institutions and malign the incumbent Vice President".

He also cited past precedent when on September 21, 2020, then then-Chairman Venkaiah Naidu rejected a similar removal notice against the Deputy Chairman, citing procedural impropriety under a provision pari materia to Article 67(b).

Deputy chairman Harivansh was entrusted to deal with the notice after Chairman Dhankhar recused himself from it.