Important Facts For Prelims
Privilege Motion
- 05 Jul 2019
- 2 min read
Recently, a member of the Indian parliament has moved a privilege motion against a TV channel.
- The breach of privilege motion is moved against a private Hindi news channel and its Editor for reporting that members' first speech in the Lok Sabha was plagiarised.
- Plagiarism is a practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
- Parliamentary privileges are certain rights and immunities enjoyed by members of Parliament, individually and collectively, so that they can effectively discharge their functions.
- The Constitution (Article 105) mentions two privileges,i.e. freedom of speech in Parliament and right of publication of its proceedings.
- Rule No 222 in Chapter 20 of the Lok Sabha Rule Book and correspondingly Rule 187 in Chapter 16 of the Rajya Sabha rulebook governs privilege.
- The Speaker of Loksabha and Rajya Sabha Chairperson is the first level of scrutiny of a privilege motion.
- The Speaker/Chairperson can decide on the privilege motion himself or herself or refer it to the privileges committee of Parliament.
- If the Speaker/Chairperson gives consent under respective rules, the member concerned is given an opportunity to make a short statement.
Privilege Committee
- Lok Sabha: The Speaker nominates a committee of privileges consisting of 15 members as per respective party strengths.
- Rajya Sabha: The deputy chairperson heads the committee of privileges, that consists of 10 members.
