Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari on Tuesday rejected the resignation letter of embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, paving the way for his expulsion from the Upper House, reports said.
According to a Rajya Sabha official, the resignation letter Mallya had faxed from London did not contain his signature in original and therefore cannot be accepted.
As per rule 213 of Rajya Sabha procedures, the resignation must be voluntary and genuine, and should bear the person's original signature.
Mallya, an independent member from Karnataka, resigned as a member of the Rajya Sabha on Monday, a day before an ethics committee of the Rajya Sabha was set to recommend his expulsion. The panel was formed after he fled to London on March 2 at a time when the government and mainly state-controlled banks were trying to recover Rs 9,000 crore owed by his collapsed Kingfisher Airlines Ltd.
On April 25, the ethics committee gave Mallya a week to explain his conduct in the default on bank loans. The government had earlier revoked Mallya’s diplomatic passport in an effort to get the businessman to return to India.
