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Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday dubbed the opposition INDIA bloc's move to submit a notice for removal of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar as "extremely regrettable" and said the government is very proud of him.
Talking to reporters in New Delhi, the parliamentary affairs minister said the vice president, who is also chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, is extremely professional and impartial.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Sharma on Tuesday alleged the opposition parties submitted a notice to move a motion to remove Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar just to disrupt House proceedings and asserted that there were no valid grounds to impeach him.
In a first, parties of the INDIA bloc on Tuesday submitted a notice to bring a motion in Rajya Sabha for the removal of Dhankhar, accusing him of "partisan" conduct as the chairperson of the Upper House.The vice-president is the Rajya Sabha's ex-officio chairman.
Congress MPs Jairam Ramesh and Naseer Hussain submitted the notice to Rajya Sabha Secretary General PC Mody.
Asked for comment on the opposition's move, Sharma said, "I think they lack understanding of the constitutional process. A no-confidence motion cannot be brought against the vice-president or chairman (of the Rajya Sabha)."
An impeachment motion can "perhaps" be brought under Rule 67 (b) when the person holding the position of Rajya Sabha chairman indulges "in some kind of indiscipline or partisan or such an act which goes beyond the ambit of the Constitution", he said.
"In this case, nobody is more humble than the chairperson (in the House). He spoke to everyone with folded hands," Sharma he told PTI in the Parliament complex.
He also rejected the opposition's charge that Dhankhar conducted the proceedings of the Upper House in a partisan manner. "He (Dhankhar) called the leaders of the Congress and the opposition parties first and allowed some people from the treasury benches to speak later."
"So there is no case against the Rajya Sabha chairman made out under this ground as well," he added.
"Neither there is any discipline here, nor any case of partisan nor any such act which is beyond the ambit of the Constitution," Sharma said and alleged that the opposition parties' notice to move a motion for removing the vice-president was an attempt to "build pressure so that they can disrupt the House proceedings".
The notice, spearheaded by the Congress, came in the wake of turbulent ties between opposition parties and 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. It has been a very painful decision for the INDIA parties to take, but in the interests of parliamentary democracy they have had to take this step," Ramesh said in a post on X.