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Upper House adjourned to mark Soren’s death
The House reverted to the practice of adjourning for the day following the demise of a sitting member, after it was discontinued in 2019
Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Monday to condole the passing of a sitting member and former Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren, who died at a private hospital in the national capital. The House reverted to the practice of adjourning for the day following the demise of a sitting member, after it was discontinued in 2019.
As soon as the House convened for the day, deputy chairman Harivansh read out the obituary reference for 81-year-old Jharkhand Mukti Morcha patriarch Soren, who was ailing for sometime. He then announced the adjournment of proceedings for the day.
According to a senior Congress leader, the opposition had reached out to the government to revert to the practice of adjourning the House for the full day as a mark of respect. “The parliamentary affairs minister (Kiren Rijiju) was very accommodative and it was agreed to follow the old practice,” the leader said.
Welcoming the move, the Congress leader said the House was not adjourned for the full day even when senior leaders and sitting MPs Arun Jaitley (2019) and Ram Vilas Paswan (2020) passed away.
“A big tribal leader Shibu Soren passed away today, hence we adjourned the Rajya Sabha for the day today, as our condolence on the death,” Rijiju told reporters.
In 2016, the general purposes committee had recommended that in the case of death of a sitting member of the Rajya Sabha during the session, the (then) existing practice of adjourning the House for the day, would be continued. “The House would be adjourned for the day as soon as the message is received or on the following day if the message is received late,” the recommendation said.
However, in the case of death of a sitting member of the Rajya Sabha during intersession period, the practice of adjourning for the full day on the first day of its assembly, may be done away with and instead the House may be adjourned after making the obituary reference for an hour as a mark of respect.
“This recommendation was accepted during the tenure of the then chairman Hamid Ansari…It was also agreed that in the case of the death of a minister who, at the time of his death, was not a member of the Rajya Sabha, the House should be adjourned for the day, if the death took place in Delhi, in order to enable the members to participate in the funeral,” said a person aware of the details.
In 2019, there was a departure from the procedure when then chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu announced that the House would be adjourned only for a few hours to condole the passing of a sitting member and Rajasthan BJP unit chief Madan Lal Saini.
The same year, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also said that the House will resume after a short adjournment to pay tribute to the deceased, while announcing that the House would not be adjourned for the day following the death of Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother, Ramchandra Paswan, a sitting Lok Sabha MP. While the opposition had protested the move, Ram Vilas issued a statement backing the decision and said, “Parliament has started a new convention so that it can resume its normal duties after 2 pm…No politics should be done over it.”
In 2021, the Upper House was adjourned for an hour to show respect to two deceased sitting MPs, Raghunath Mohapatra and Rajeev Satav.
