Suspension Lifted For 14 MPs, RS Panel Finds 11 Guilty Of Breach Of Privilege: Report

Ahead of the Budget session, the chairs of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Monday lifted the suspension of 14 opposition MPs, permitting their participation in parliamentary proceedings.

The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha chairs lifted 14 opposition MPs' suspensions on Monday, allowing them to attend House proceedings, news agency PTI reported on Tuesday citing sources. 

The MPs -- 11 from the Rajya Sabha and three from the Lok Sabha -- were suspended during the previous session and their cases were referred to the respective privilege committees.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi stated that the Rajya Sabha chairman and the Lok Sabha speaker have agreed to the government's request to lift the 14 MPs' suspensions.

The Lok Sabha's Privileges Committee recommended that the suspensions of three Congress MPs, Abdul Khaleque, K Jayakumar, and Vijay Vasanth, be lifted after they expressed regret for their conduct during the Winter session, when their persistent protests prompted the Chair to act.

The Rajya Sabha's Privileges Committee found the 11 suspended opposition MPs guilty of breach of privilege and contempt of the Council of States, but Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar lifted their suspensions and allowed them to attend the Budget session, according to the PTI report.

The MPs found "guilty of breach of privilege and contempt of the Council" of States are 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.

As per the PTI report, the committee presented the report to Dhankhar, noting that the suspended members would be unable to attend President Droupadi Murmu's special address to both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, which was the first address in the new Parliament building.

The committee usually makes recommendations to the House.

The report said the chairman invoked the authority vested in him under the rules of procedure to revoke their suspension enabling the members to attend the special address by the president.

146 MPs, including Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha members, were suspended last month during Parliament's Winter Session for staging protests demanding a statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah regarding the security breach in Parliament.

Of the 146 MPs, 132 were suspended for the rest of the session. As a result, their suspension was lifted at the end of the session.

For the remaining 14 MPs, 11 from the Rajya Sabha and 3 from the Lok Sabha, the case was referred to both Houses' privileges committees.

While the Lok Sabha's Privileges Committee lifted the suspensions of three Lok Sabha members on January 12, the suspensions of 11 Rajya Sabha members were lifted today.

On the Opposition's demand for the Home Minister's statement, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla insisted that security inside the House is under the purview of the secretariat and that the Centre will not intervene. "The government cannot interfere with the responsibilities of the Lok Sabha Secretariat. We will not allow that either," he had stated.

The Opposition claimed that the suspension of MPs was a government ploy to pass key bills without debate.

Last month, shocking scenes occurred in the Lok Sabha chamber when two intruders jumped from desk to desk and deployed coloured smoke from canisters. Their co-accused held a similar protest outside Parliament. They told investigators that their goal was to bring attention to Manipur's violence, unemployment, and farmers' problems.