Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar had a faceoff with the Congress members on Friday who protested his criticism of Sonia Gandhi for her statement that a constitutional authority had been enlisted to “delegitimise the judiciary”.

As Dhankhar defended his position on this issue, the Congress MPs staged a walkout.

On Wednesday, Sonia had at a Congress parliamentary party meeting said the Narendra Modi government was undermining institutions. Sonia had referred to a “troubling development of calculated attempt to delegitimise the judiciary”.

“Ministers — and even a high constitutional authority — have been enlisted to making speeches attacking the judiciary on various grounds,” she had said.

On Thursday, Dhankhar described Sonia’s statement as “severely inappropriate, indicating lack of faith in democracy”.

As the House assembled on Friday, Congress MPs objected to Dhankhar’s criticism of the remarks that were made outside the House by a person who was a member of the Lok Sabha.