Panel for Automatic Suspension in Rajya Sabha

• 12 Jul 2018

The rules review committee, in its interim report, has made few key recommendations:

• Automatic Suspension of Willful Offenders

• Currently, the Rajya Sabha Chairman cannot suspend a member of her own and a motion needs to be adopted by the House for the suspension of a member.
• That’s unlike in the Lok Sabha, where the Speaker can suspend a member from the service of the House for five consecutive sittings or the remainder of the session, whichever is less.

• Changing Question-hour Timing

• Question Hour is the slot in which members of Parliament seek replies from the government on subjects related to various ministries.
• The first hour of every sitting of Parliament is generally reserved for the asking and answering of questions.
• Question Hour is mentioned in the Rules of Procedure of Parliament.
• The panel suggested restoring the question hour to 11 a.m. from noon.

• The Rule 267 of Rajya Sabha may be amended, under which business of the day can be suspended to discuss something of extraordinary importance.

It has been noticed that many members had a tendency to use it on a regular basis to disrupt the house.

Background

• Earlier the two-member committee headed by former Secretary General of Rajya Sabha V.K. Agnihotri and S.R. Dhaleta, a former Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Law and Justice was formed to review the rules of procedure and conduct of business in the Rajya Sabha.
• The report has to be approved by the Rules Committee of the Upper House, which is headed by the Chairman of Rajya Sabha and has members from across parties.