Rajya Sabha Chairman, Lok Sabha Speaker reject Opposition notice seeking CEC’s removal

Rajya Sabha Chairman C. P. Radhakrishnan and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla have rejected a notice submitted by 193 Opposition MPs across both Houses seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. No specific reasons were cited for the rejection.

The notice, submitted on March 12, was signed by 63 Rajya Sabha members and 130 Lok Sabha members.

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The 10-page document accused the CEC of being “subservient” to the executive and alleged the “wilful and deliberate abuse of power and position of a constitutional office”, among other charges.

While there was no mention of the notice from the Chair of either House during the ongoing Budget session, which will reconvene on April 16, the Secretaries General of both Houses issued bulletins on Monday stating that, “after due consideration” and a “careful and objective assessment of all relevant aspects and issues involved”, the notice had not been admitted.

The Chairs cited Section 3 of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968. The removal of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners follows the same procedure as that for the removal of judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts. Section 3 empowers the Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman, after “due consultation” and “consideration of available material,” to either admit or refuse such a motion.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) had taken the lead in mobilising the Opposition on the issue. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) cited Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha’s alleged refusal to sign the notice as one of the key reasons for his removal as the party’s Deputy Leader in the Upper House.

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Reacting to the bulletins, TMC’s floor leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien, pointed to the absence of any definitive reason for rejecting the notices. “BJP keeps mocking our great Parliament. SHAME,” he wrote in a post on X. Congress Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh told The Hindu, “We know what happened to the last Chairman of the Rajya Sabha who accepted a petition moved by Opposition MPs.”

He was referring to the July 2025 notices submitted by over 145 Lok Sabha MPs and 63 Rajya Sabha Opposition members seeking the removal of Allahabad High Court Judge Justice Yashwant Varma following the discovery of unexplained cash at his residence. In August 2025, Mr. Birla admitted the motion, initiating the formal inquiry process. Then Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar resigned hours after announcing in the House that he had received and admitted a notice signed by over 50 Opposition members.