Rajya Sabha Chairman, Lok Sabha Speaker reject Opposition move to impeach CEC Gyanesh Kumar

Both the motions referred to the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, and alleged “partisan and discriminatory conduct” on the part of the CEC and “obstruction of investigation into electoral fraud and SIR”.

The decisions to reject the motions, taken by Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, were communicated through respective Parliamentary Bulletins published Monday night. Both bulletins said the Chairman and Speaker had “refused to admit the said notice of motion…after due consideration of the notice of Motion and a careful and objective assessment of all relevant aspects and issues involved”.

They invoked their power under Section 3 of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 to do so. The removal of a CEC is governed by the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 and the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968.

Taking to X, TMC’s O’Brien posted: “Notice to remove CEC Vanish Kumar by Rajya Sabha MPs rejected. Reason? NO REASON GIVEN. BJP keep mocking our great Parliament. SHAME.”

Congress general secretary in-charge of communications and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh wrote on X: “We know what happened to the last Chairman of the Rajya Sabha who accepted a petition moved by Opposition MPs.” He was referring to former Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s mid-term resignation in July 2025.

Hours before he quit, Dhankhar had said in the Rajya Sabha that he had received the Opposition’s motion to impeach Justice Yashwant Varma, even as the Government was planning on initiating the proceedings in the Lok Sabha.

After being critical of the Election Commission’s conduct for the past few years, the Opposition decided to move the motions to remove the CEC in the wake of the SIR that, they alleged, was aimed at removing their voters.

The notices marked the first time that an effort to remove a CEC was undertaken. The impeachment attempt was largely seen as a political message as, even if the motions were admitted, the Opposition does not have the numbers to get them passed in both Houses.

The process to remove a CEC is the same as that for a Supreme Court judge, according to Article 324 (5) of the Constitution.

Article 124 (4), which details the process, states that Supreme Court judges, and as a result the CEC, can only be removed “by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity”.