Rajya Sabha: No-confidence motion against Jagdeep Dhankhar junked

On December 10, about 60 INDIA bloc MPs had submitted a notice for a motion to remove Dhankhar as Rajya Sabha chairman.

Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh on Thursday dismissed the Opposition’s notice for a motion of no-confidence against Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, arguing that it was drawn in haste to malign the vice-president and garner publicity, had technical flaws and misspelt his name, among other reasons.

Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar. (SansadTV YouTube)

This was the first attempt in independent India to remove the chairman of the Upper House,

In a three-page ruling, Harivansh said the notice was “casual and cavalier”.

“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,” said the ruling, tabled in the House by Rajya Sabha secretary general PC Mody,

On December 10, about 60 INDIA bloc MPs had submitted a notice for a motion to remove Dhankhar, alleging that his term was rife with instances where he “acted in a manner that is explicitly partisan and unfair towards members belonging to the Opposition”.

In his ruling, the deputy chairman said the notice addressed to no specific authority, sought its (notice) consideration under Article 67(b) of the Constitution as intention of a no-confidence motion against the vice-president of India.

Pointing out that a notice invoking Article 67(b) peremptorily mandates at least 14 days prior notice for any resolution contemplating the vice-president’s removal, the vice-chairman said the notice of intention could permit such a resolution only after December 24, 2024.

“The current 266th session of the Council of States, as notified on November 6, 2024, commenced on November 25 and scheduled to conclude on December 20, 2024,” the ruling said.

The ruling deplored that the notice was intended to target the VP. “The gravity of this personally targeted notice bereft, of facts and aimed at securing publicity makes its expose expedient, being misadventure in deliberate trivialising and demeaning of the high constitutional office of Vice President of the largest democracy...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,” the ruling said.

The vice chairman also censured the Opposition for allegedly being cavalier in filing the notice.

“...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,” the ruling said.

It pointed out that there was a precedent for not accepting a motion not filed in the proper format, the vice-chairman referred to a ruling by the then-chairman Venkaiah Naidu who had rejected a similar removal notice against Harivansh.

In 2020, a group of Opposition MPs gave a notice for a no-confidence motion against Harivansh, but it was also not accepted for not giving the 14-day notice.

“...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 personal image of the incumbent Vice President— notably, the first from the agricultural community to hold this office in the history of Independent India,” the ruling said.

It also underlined that 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” indicated “prejudicial intent”.

The ruling also took cognisance of the Opposition’s “attempt to set afloat a narrative as if the authority was sitting over the notice of intention and thereby not discharging expectedly” by addressing the media about the notice.

“ This coupled with the Leader of Opposition’s subsequent ten-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,” the ruling said.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, one of the signatories of the notice against Dhankhar, hit back.

“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. In this connection, I had written to the chairman on December 14th. The Chairman told me categorically twice - on Dec 17th and 18th - that he agrees with what I had said in the letter. He asked me to forget what he had said and bury my letter, which will find place only in his memoirs. He, in fact, apologised to me,” Ramesh said on X. The Congress leader said that he had decided to let the matter rest. “But now I find the same misrepresentation in the deputy chairman’s ruling for which there can be only one source,” he added.