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LS privileges committee adopts resolution to revoke 3 MPs’ suspension
The committee agreed to revoke the action after the three Congress MPs appeared before it during a meeting and expressed regret
New Delhi: The Lok Sabha privileges committee on Friday adopted a resolution to revoke the suspension of three Congress MPs, who were penalised along with 143 Opposition lawmakers during the winter session of Parliament last month, a person aware of the details said.
The committee agreed to revoke the action after the three Congress MPs – K Jayakumar, Abdul Khaleque and Vijay Vasanth – appeared before it during a meeting and expressed regret over their conduct in the Lower House during the session.
“During the meeting, the committee, headed by (BJP MP) Sunil Kumar Singh, adopted the resolution that will now be sent to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla on Monday. Subsequently, the Lok Sabha Secretariat will announce the revocation of their suspension,” the person quoted above said, seeking anonymity.
A record 146 opposition MPs from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were suspended 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 are 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 the above three Congress Lok Sabha MPs and 11 Rajya Sabha MPs were referred to the privileges committee.
The three MPs – Khaleque from Barpeta constituency in Assam, Vasanth from Kanyakumari and Jayakumar from Namakkal constituency in Tamil Nadu – were among 33 lawmakers who were suspended from the Lok Sabha on December 18. The three of them had reached the presiding officer’s chair during the protest in the House.
Meanwhile, ahead of the Budget session of Parliament, for which the schedule was announced on Friday, an air of uncertainty still looms over the reinstatement of the 11 Rajya Sabha MPs, whose cases were referred to the privilege committee.
The panel, headed by deputy chairman Harivansh, had tried but could not take up the matter on Tuesday owing to lack of quorum.
On Friday, parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi announced that the last session of the 17th Lok Sabha, ahead of the general elections, will be held between January 31 and February 9. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the interim Budget on February 1, he said in a post on X.
The session will commence with the President’s address in the Lok Sabha chamber at 11 am on January 31, and will have eight sittings.
The Winter session, which began on December 4 but ended a day ahead of schedule, on December 21, was marked by disruptions and intense discord between the government and the Opposition.
Fault lines between the government and the Opposition that were first on display during the expulsion of Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra, over her “direct involvement” in cash-for-query charges, deepened after a brazen incursion into the Lok Sabha on December 13 and the suspension of a record number of Opposition members over protests and the demand that the Union home minister respond to the breach inside Parliament.
