Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 19: The Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh on Thursday dismissed the impeachment notice given by the opposition seeking the removal of Vice president and chairman of the Upper House Jagdeep Dhankhar ruling it as an act of impropriety, being severely flawed and drawn in haste to mar his reputation.
In his ruling, which was tabled in the House by Rajya Sabha secretary general P.C. Mody, Mr Harivansh said the impeachment notice against Mr Dhankhar was aimed at damaging the constitutional institution of the country and “deserves to be and is hereby dismissed.” The deputy chairman said the impeachment notice was 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 Mr Dhankhar from his post on December 10, alleging that they did not have trust in him and that he was “biased”
The deputy chairman ruled that the gravity of this “personally targeted” notice which was 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.
He further said it was worrisome, particularly for the prestige of Parliament and its members, that the notice was replete with assertions only to malign the incumbent Vice President, the deputy chairman ruled, the sources added.
The deputy chairman was entrusted to deal with the notice after Chairman Mr Dhankhar recused himself from it.
After the dismissal of the no-confidence motion against Dhankhar, Congress general secretary in-charge Jairam Ramesh accused Mr Harivansh of taking “liberties with facts” in his ruling with reference to a press conference he held on December 12.
“The ruling given by the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha today on the motion of no confidence in the Chairman submitted by INDIA parties contains a reference to some remarks made by me in a press conference held on Dec 12, 2024. This reference takes liberties with facts – to put it mildly,” he said in a post on X.
His social media post is about a letter he said he had written to Mr Dhankhar on December 14, the contents of which the Rajya Sabha chairman agreed with and told him twice — on December 17 and 18 — to “bury” the letter and even apologised to him for it.
Ramesh alleged that the contents of the letter had been misrepresented in the deputy chairman’s ruling and there could “be only one source” for it. Hence, he was forced to make his letter written to Mr Dhankhar public.
