The chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankhar, has requested that the committee of privileges investigate the alleged violation of privilege by 12 opposition lawmakers for “repeatedly entering the well of the Council, shouting slogans, and persistently and willfully obstructing the proceedings of the Council.”
According to the Rajya Sabha bulletin, nine of these twelve lawmakers are Congress members and three are Aam Aadmi Party members (AAP). Shaktisinh Gohil, Naranbhai J. Rathwa, Syed Nasir Hussain, Kumar Ketkar, Imran Prattapgarhi, L. Hanumanthaiah, Phulo Devi Netam, Jebi Mather Hisham, and Ranjeet Ranjan are the Congress representatives included in the reference. The AAP members are Sanjay Singh, Sushil Kumar Gupta and Sandeep Kumar Pathak.
The Rajya Sabha secretariat stated in a separate notice that the committee has been requested to probe a breach of privilege by Singh for repeatedly submitting similar notices under Rule 267.
“Members are hereby informed that the chairman, Rajya Sabha, has referred to the committee of privileges for examination, investigation, and report a question of alleged breach of privilege arising out of non-adherence to the directions of the Chair vis-a-vis repeated submission of identical notices under rule 267 by Shri Sanjay Singh, member, Rajya Sabha, under rule 203 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha)
Rule 267 permits the suspension of listed business in order to address a problem presented by any member with the permission of the chair.
In addition, the committee has been tasked with investigating the charge of breach of privilege against Congress member Rajni Patil, who has been suspended for the remainder of the March budget session. Patil was suspended on February 10 for recording and afterwards sharing House proceedings on social media networks. Dhankhar recommended the disciplinary punishment in response to a complaint from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The first half of the Budget session, which concluded on February 13th, was marked by disturbances as opposition Lawmakers requested a discussion on the Hindenburg report, which alleged financial wrongdoing by the Adani Group and caused the conglomerate’s stock price to plummet.
According to an official with knowledge of the situation, “some members complained that frequent disruptions by some MPs violated their privilege.” Since members cannot directly file complaints with the privilege committee, the Chair referred the matter to the committee to examine, investigate, and report.
