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14 Opposition lawmakers’ suspension revoked; to attend last Budget session
The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday revoked the suspension of 14 Opposition MPs, who were penalised along with 132 others during the Winter session of Parliament last month, to allow them to attend President Droupadi Murmu’s first address to both Houses in the new Parliament building and the Budget session from Wednesday.
The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday revoked the suspension of 14 Opposition MPs, who were penalised along with 132 others during the Winter session of Parliament last month, to allow them to attend President Droupadi Murmu’s first address to both Houses in the new Parliament building and the Budget session from Wednesday.
A record 146 opposition MPs from both Houses of Parliament were penalised over a span of six days during the 14-day Winter session after they refused to budge on their demand for a statement from Union home minister Amit Shah on the Parliament security breach on December 13. Of these, 100 were from the Lower House and 46 from the Upper House.
While a majority of the lawmakers were suspended for the remainder of the session, cases of three Congress Lok Sabha MPs and 11 Rajya Sabha MPs were referred to the privileges committee.
On January 12, the Lok Sabha privileges committee adopted a resolution to revoke the suspension of three Congress MPs.
According to a circular issued by the Lower House on Tuesday, “the suspension of Dr. K. Jayakumar, Shri Abdul Khaleque and Shri Vijay Kumar from the service of the House which was effected on 18.12.23 till the submission of the Report by the Committee of Privileges, has been revoked with effect from 31.01.24.”
The announcement came after the House’s privileges committee, led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Sunil Kumar Singh, sent its report to speaker Om Birla, recommending revocation of the MPs’ suspension.
Likewise, Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar revoked the suspension of 11 MPs from the House, although a formal order in this regard would be announced on Wednesday, a senior official said.
The official also said that the opposition MPs were found guilty of breach of privilege and contempt of the Council.
HT on January 24 had reported that the suspended MPs may attend the Budget session.
“The Committee of Privileges of Rajya Sabha has held the 11 members i.e. Jebi Mather Hisham, L. Hanumanthaiah, Neeraj Dangi, Rajmani Patel, Kumar Ketkar, G. C. Chandrashekhar, Binoy Viswam, Sandosh Kumar P., M. Mohamed Abdulla, John Brittas, and A.A. Rahim guilty of breach of privilege and contempt of the Council. It had further recommended that the period of suspension already suffered by the members be treated as sufficient punishment for the transgression,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
“However, taking note of the situation that the suspended members would not be able to attend the Special Address of President Droupadi Murmu to both Houses of Parliament assembled together, under Article 87 of the Constitution of India, for the first time in the new building of the Parliament, the Committee presented the Report to chairman Rajya Sabha,” the official added.
Dhankhar invoked the authority vested in him, including under Rules 202 and 266 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), to revoke the suspensions.
Earlier in the day, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said he requested Birla and Dhankhar to withdraw the suspensions of the opposition MPs on behalf of the government.
“All (suspensions) will be revoked. I have spoken with the (Lok Sabha) speaker and (Rajya Sabha) chairman. I have also requested them on behalf of the government...This is the jurisdiction of the speaker and the chairman. So, we have requested both of them to speak with the concerned privileges committees, revoke the suspension and give them the opportunity to come to the House. Both of them agreed,” he said after an all-party meeting ahead of the Budget session.
