Jagdeep Dhankhar quits as Vice President: What he said in Rajya Sabha today; judge impeachment, cash under seat
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
EW DELHI: Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday resigned as Vice President citing health reasons and said that he made the decision to 'prioritise health care' and act on 'medical advice.'
The announcement came just hours after Dhankhar, who also served as Rajya Sabha chairman, addressed the House and raised several serious issues, including the impeachment motion against a high court judge Yashwant Varma and an incident involving unclaimed cash found under a seat in the House.
In a detailed statement, Dhankhar informed the members that he had received a motion for the removal of a high court judge Yashwant varma under Article 217(1)(b) read with Article 218 of the Constitution and Section 3 of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968.
'It is signed by more than 50 members of the Council of States and thus it meets the numerical requirement,' he said.
RS | Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar's Remarks | 04:06 pm - 04:19 pm | 21 July, 2025
Explaining the technical procedure involved in such cases, Dhankhar pointed out the constitutional requirement of whether such motions are presented in one or both Houses of Parliament on the same day. 'If the motion is presented in the two houses on different dates, then the motion which is presented in the house first that alone is taken into consideration and the second motion gets nonjurisdictional,' he said.
He directed the Secretary-General to verify if a similar motion had been moved in the Lok Sabha. The Law Minister, present in the House, confirmed that over 100 members had submitted such a motion there as well.
Dhankhar also referred to an earlier motion from December concerning a another judge of the Allahabad high court Shekhar Yadav, PTI reported. He said the motion was initially signed by 55 members, but a scrutiny revealed that one MP had signed twice, bringing the total valid count down to 54.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
'The result was that the representation, the motion indicated there are 55 members seeking removal. But actually it was not 55, it was only 54,' he noted.
He said the process for verifying signatures and authentication is still ongoing.
He added that one MP, whose signature appeared twice, denied having signed the motion more than once. 'If a motion carries two signatures of the same member and the honorable member declines that he has not signed at two places but he has signed only at one place, the matter becomes serious and culpable,' Dhankhar said, while stressing the need for Parliament to uphold transparency and integrity.
'This August House has to set very high standards. If we do not live up to the highest expectations of the people, then we'll be putting things under the carpet and not subjecting them to deep investigation,' he said.
In a startling revelation, Dhankhar said that 'on seat number 222 a bundle of rupees 500 notes was found.' He added, 'What is more surprising and deeply concerning is not that a pad of notes was found but no one has owned it.
No one has claimed it. This is quite serious.' He said the matter would be referred to floor leaders for further discussion and direction.
Reacting to Dhankhar's resignation, senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal said, 'I wish him the best of health, because I am saddened, because I have a very good relationship with him. I have known him for 30-40 years. We were paired with each other. We have appeared against each other in matters.
We have a bonhomie between us that is quite unique. I always respected him, and he always respected me. He has been to some family occasions of ours, and I am saddened and I hope that he is healthy and has a long, long life, and I wish him well.
We may have had differences, in respect to our political views, or on opinions, but at a personal level, we had a very strong bond. Whenever I needed time to speak in the House, I met him personally in his chamber, and he never refused me, and gave me a little more time than is otherwise available to independent members of Parliament.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
19 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Kishan Reddy slams Telangana caste survey, backs Centre's census for ‘real justice' to BCs
The proposed caste census to be taken up by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre will be as per the Constitution to provide 'real justice' to the Backward Classes (BC) unlike the 'useless' caste socio-economic survey taken up by the Congress government in Telangana which seeks to 'cheat' them by including Muslims in the BCc quota, said Union Minister for Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy on Friday. 'Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy should explain how the BCs can benefit when his government survey has reduced the numbers to 46% of the population and cutting down the quota benefit further by seeking to include 10% Muslims who will anyway get benefit from the 10% EWS — economically weaker sections quota,' he told a press conference in New Delhi. The High Court had struck down the 4% quota for Muslims when they were included in BC-E category by the then Congress government led by Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy but it is being implemented with the existing stay order in the Supreme Court. The current government intends to increase the same to 10% depriving the BCs of their rights as their quota gets reduced to 32%, he maintained. Mr. Kishan Reddy's contention is that 10% quota to Muslims benefits the Majlis Party and Congress leaders more. In this context, he referred to the GHMC elections where most of the BC reserved divisions were bagged by the Majlis Party in the last elections. The BJP leader said it was unbecoming of the Chief Minister to speak sarcastically about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's caste as 'converted caste' and has pointed out that inclusion of castes into SC/ST/BC has been a continuous process. Mr. Modi's caste was included by the then Congress governments based on the Mandal Commission report. The Congress has never made a BC as either PM or CM in its history plus did not bother to take up caste census or provide quota to BCs when in power. The Minister said the Congress government should follow the High Court order and conduct the local body polls within September and also implement the promised 42% quota for BCs even while 'genuine' BCs get the benefit.
The Hindu
19 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Officials organising a series of contests in Andhra Pradesh to raise RTI awareness
To foster a comprehensive understanding of the Right to Information (RTI) Act among students, the Commissionerate of College Education is organising a series of competitions in activities like essay writing, elocution, debate and quiz at various levels across the State, coinciding with the 79th Independence Day. The event is a part of the year-long programmes being planned by the Andhra Pradesh State Information Department to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Right to Information Act. According to the schedule of the events, college-level competitions would be completed by July 28, the zonal level by August 6 and the State-level competitions on August 11. The Department also conducted several awareness programmes for faculty, office staff and students in government degree colleges from July 4 to July 18, 2025 to scale up awareness on RTI legislation. Director, College Education, Narayan Bharat Gupta, Joint Director C. Krishna, Academic Guidance Officers and others are supervising the arrangements being made for successful conduct of the events. Mr. Bharat Gupta expressed gratitude to the State Information Commissioner P. Samuel Jonathan for providing guidance for the event.
The Wire
19 minutes ago
- The Wire
Bihar SIR: Parliament Stalemate Continues As Govt Remains Non-Committal on Opp's Demands
New Delhi: The first week of the monsoon session ended in a washout on Friday as the stalemate between the government and the opposition over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar continued. The opposition has been demanding a discussion on, among other issues, the Election Commission of India's exercise in Bihar, but the government has remained non-committal over whether a discussion will be held on the issue in the coming week. Following a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC), Union minister for parliamentary affairs Kiren Rijiju said that the government has agreed to the opposition's demand for a discussion on the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, to be held on Monday and Tuesday in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively, for 16 hours each. However, he did not specify whether the opposition's demand for a discussion on the SIR will be taken up. "I have said this in the BAC today that first a discussion will be held on Operation Sindoor as was demanded by the opposition. After that other issues will be decided. Every discussion cannot happen at the same time. Discussions can happen under rules. We have met both the leaders of opposition in both houses. We want parliament to function smoothly. And this is my appeal again,' he said. Earlier on Friday, members of the opposition INDIA bloc held a protest against the SIR exercise for the fourth consecutive day. Opposition members marched holding banners and placards from the Gandhi statue to the Makar Dwar on parliament premises. They placed a bin in front of the Makar Dwar, in which parliamentarians – including leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi – threw torn pieces of paper that read SIR as a symbolic protest denouncing the exercise. As protests continued inside the house, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla called a meeting of all floor leaders to end the impasse. Sources said that in the meeting, the government remained non-committal on holding a discussion on the Bihar SIR. The Wire has learnt that while there have been questions raised about under which rule the discussion can be held, opposition members said that a general discussion could be conducted which would allow everyone to place their views on the matter in the house. While the BAC has earlier this week agreed to the opposition's demand for a discussion on the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, for which 16 hours has been allotted in each house, the opposition has said that the discussion should take place in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The discussions are now scheduled for July 28 and 29, while the opposition continues staging protests demanding a discussion on the Bihar SIR. 'After Tuesday, the opposition did not say anything about Pahalgam because we knew that the discussion cannot take place this week as the prime minister is abroad. Since then we have had only one demand – a discussion on the SIR. After one week, the Lok Sabha Speaker called all parties for a meeting, but even after this, we have not found out anything new. Even after the meeting the government is not stating clearly whether it will discuss the issue in the House or not,' said Congress' deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi to reporters outside parliament. Inside the house, the government has maintained that it is 'ready' for all discussions under relevant rules but resorted to repeated adjournments and did not say anything about the opposition's demand for a discussion on the SIR. When the Lok Sabha reconvened at 2 pm after being adjourned in the morning, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Jagdambika Pal invited members to table committee reports and then spoke for about ten minutes on the need for members to maintain decorum in the house. While he urged members to allow the house to function amid opposition protests, no opposition member was allowed to speak. Pal also did not say anything on the demand for a discussion on the SIR. 'I urge you to reflect personally that who benefits from this disruption? Who is gaining from this commotion? The people, who elected you and sent you to this House, certainly do not benefit from this disruption. The public sent you here to raise their concerns and speak about their hardships,' he said. Pal said that when the members return to their constituencies over the weekend, they would be asked what they did in parliament and asked them to introspect. 'When the government is saying both inside and outside the house that it is ready for a discussion on all issues under the rules, then why are you disrupting [parliament]? What is the reason for this disruption? You want answers from the government, [it] is ready. I am saying,' he said and then asked Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal to respond. Meghwal then rose and said the discussions should be held and the government is 'ready'. Pal then adjourned the house for the day. In the Rajya Sabha too, while new members took oath in the morning, the House was adjourned after adjournment notices demanding a discussion on the Bihar SIR and discrimination against Bengali-speaking migrant workers, among others, were rejected. When the House reconvened at noon, the question hour began but house proceedings were adjourned for the day within four minutes.
