Rajya Sabha Chairman Resigns Amid Impeachment Furore in Monsoon Session of Parliament

Jagdeep Dhankhar, the former vice-president of India, resigned from the post on July 24, 2025 Monday citing health reasons. It turns out – amid consecutive adjournments of the monsoon session of Parliament which began on July 21 – Dhankhar stepped down over disgruntlement in the ruling after his acknowledgement of an Opposition-sponsored notice for the impeachment of sitting High Court Justice Yashwant Varma.

The 74-year-old Dhankhar has come across as the vociferous vice-president ever since his BJP-backed nomination and eventual election to the post in August 1, 2022. As the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, the VP – on many occasions – appeared to have aligned with the Government. Jagdeep Dhankhar’s sudden resignation is one of peculiar as he wouldn’t make it to complete his full-term.

In a rather deviation, the short-tenured V-P Dhankhar’s siding with the opposition to bring impeachment case against Justice Yashwant Verma signed by 63 sitting members apparently didn’t sit well with the current dispensation.

Union ministers J.P. Nadda and Kiren Rijiju spoke to Dhankhar on the need to build consensus on the impeachment and apprised him of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s disapproval over the development, Hindustan Times quoted.

As per the report, Dhankhar seems to have responded saying he was well within the rules of the House to get the impeachment case against the Justice signed.

In the meantime, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that the preparations are afoot for the next vice-president elections even as marathon meetings over the last two days hog the limelight after Dhankar’s dramatic resignation.

Another report quoted senior officials saying the pending impeachment notice was one of the key topics of discussions. One official hinted at the government’s unwillingness to sit on the Rajya Sabha notice to impeachment. It is learnt that the Government would initiate the impeachment process by the appointment of a committee of jurists, who will look into the allegations and submit report to the Parliament.

Additionally, the Government is said to have rejected the opposition-sponsored notice in Rajya Sabha and nodded to proceed with Lok Sabha notice.

Both the houses – Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha – broke several times consecutively due to opposition-led protests since the beginning of the monsoon session on Monday.

The opposition-mounted pressure on the Government over the roll back of Bihar’s Special Intensive Drive (SIR), Pahalgam attack, and Operation Sindoor during the last three days led to the adjournments of both the houses.

The Parliament session, running from July 21 to August 21, will include 21 sittings over 32 days.