Cash discovery row | Motion to impeach Justice Varma rejected in Rajya Sabha, proceedings to begin in Lok Sabha

Official sources said the opposition-sponsored notice for a similar motion in Rajya Sabha has not been admitted in the Upper House, paving the way for the Lower House to initiate the exercise.

New Delhi: The impeachment motion to remove Justice Yashwant Varma has not been admitted in the Rajya Sabha, government sources said on Friday.

The motion has been rejected on some technical grounds. The motion will, however, be taken up in the Lok Sabha, where it was admitted on Monday.

The motion in the Rajya Sabha is at the heart of contention that the government allegedly had with outgoing Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who put in his papers on Monday, the first day of the Monsoon Session, citing health concerns. Dhankhar took the government by surprise by admitting a motion moved by Opposition leaders.

Hours before Dhankhar announced his resignation on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh had posted that 63 MPs from Opposition parties had moved an impeachment motion against Varma under the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968.

During his press conference on Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s all-party meeting on Friday, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the motion will be taken up in Lok Sabha as it was admitted there on Monday. He did not specify if the Upper House will take the matter or not.

Sources in the government said that the motion in Rajya Sabha is not admissible since the papers remain incomplete.

“The motion will be moved, but in Lok Sabha. It was also admitted in the Lower House first,” a senior government officer said. Once the motion is admitted in the Lok Sabha, the three-member committee will also be formed by the Lower House.

A Supreme Court Judge, a high court judge of any of the 25 high courts and an eminent jurist will be part of the panel, which will be appointed by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

The source added that all Opposition parties had agreed to take up the motion in the Lower House ahead of the Monsoon Session, and there was no discussion on whether the motion will be moved in the Upper House. The Opposition’s move to admit a motion in the Rajya Sabha took the government by surprise.

The exercise to collect signatures for the motion had begun among Opposition members days before the beginning of the Monsoon Session, and it was anchored by a senior Congress politician. One of the notable exceptions in signatories among Opposition parties is Samajwadi Party.