Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar
NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh on Thursday dismissed the impeachment notice given by the Opposition seeking the removal of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar while ruling it as an act of impropriety, being severely flawed and drawn in haste to mar his reputation.
In his three-page 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.
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 intention of a no-confidence motion against the Vice President of India.
The deputy chairman ruled that the gravity of this "personally targeted" notice which is bereft of facts and aimed at securing publicity and said it needs to be exposed, it being a "misadventure" in deliberate trivialising and demeaning of the high constitutional office of Vice President of the largest democracy.
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 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 know of the situation that the resolution cannot be brought during this session, this was initiated only to set a narrative against second highest constitutional office and the Vice President, the deputy chairman said in his ruling.
"In view of the above the notice is held as an act of impropriety, severely flawed, apparently drawn in haste and hurry to marred reputation of the incumbent Vice President and aimed to damage the constitutional institution. The same deserves to be and is hereby dismissed," he said in the order.
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".
"A look at the notice reveals it couldn't be more casual and cavalier, wanting on every conceivable aspect and severally flawed- absence of 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.
"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.
Harivansh said all this gets aggravated when juxtaposed with the temporal impossibility of moving a resolution as indicated.
The deputy chairman has also ruled that the prejudicial intent manifested through orchestration of a coordinated media campaign, including a televised press conference initiated by the LoP and Chief whip of the Indian National Congress, main opposition party, on December 12, 2024, where AICC general secretary asserted "that a no confidence has been moved and asked what action has been taken on it, there no information available about it".
The deputy chairman 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 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.
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) whereby he had rejected the notice for not adhering to the required period of 14 days.
Harivansh 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".
Harivansh was entrusted to deal with the notice after Chairman Dhankhar recused himself from it.
He said he would give a detailed order later.
