Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh on Thursday rejected the no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition against Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, calling it “an act of impropriety” to “mar the reputation of the chairman”.

In a detailed order, the deputy chairman called the motion “flawed”.

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Explaining the reasons for the rejection, he pointed out that the mandatory 14-day notice required to move such a motion was not provided. Additionally, he noted that Dhankhar’s name was misspelt in the notice.

At least 60 Opposition MPs of the INDIA bloc had on December 10 submitted the 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.

The deputy chairman further stated that the impeachment notice is part of a deliberate effort to undermine the nation’s constitutional institutions and tarnish the reputation of the incumbent Vice President.

The motion, submitted under Article 67(B) of the Constitution, was backed by the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), leading to an uproar in the Upper House of Parliament.

“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,” Harivansh said in 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,” he said.

“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.”

“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,” it added.