Finance Secy. fails to appear in House, matter sent to Privileges Committee

Finance Secy. fails to appear in House, matter sent to Privileges Committee

Subject: Polity

Section: Parliament

Context:

• The Principal Secretary of the Finance Department failed to appear before the Delhi Legislative Assembly after being summoned by it, prompting Speaker Ram Niwas Goel to refer the matter to the Privileges Committee of the House.
• The Assembly had passed a resolution asking Principal Secretary (Finance)  Ashish Chandra Verma to appear before it to explain why funds were not being released by his department for various works in the city.

Basic Concepts For Prelims: 

• Parliamentary Privileges:
  • Parliament and its Members (MP’s) have certain rights and immunities that enable them to function effectively in their legislative roles. These are called parliamentary privileges.
  • Article 105 and Article 194 of the Indian Constitution mentioned certain privileges for the Member of Parliament and State Assembly respectively so that they can perform their duties without any obstruction.
  • They are the special rights, immunities and exemptions enjoyed by the Members of Parliament/State Assembly, its committees and their members.
  • These privileges do not extend to the president who is also an integral part of the Parliament. These privileges are necessary to secure their independence in working.
  • Without these privileges; The Houses cannot maintain their authority, dignity and honour. The House cannot protect its members from any obstacle in the discharge of their parliamentary responsibilities.
  • The Indian Constitution has also extended these privileges to the persons who are authorised to speak and take part in the Parliamentary procedures or any of its committees.
  • These include the attorney general of India and Union ministers.

Sources of the privileges:

• The Parliament till now not explicitly create code for privileges. As of now, it is based on 5 sources – Constitution, statutes, House procedures, Parliamentary conventions and judicial interpretations.

Breach of privilege:

• A breach of privilege is a violation of any of the privileges of MPs/Parliament.
• Among other things, any action ‘casting reflections’ on MPs, parliament or its committees; could be considered breach of privilege.
• This may include publishing of news items, editorials or statements made in newspaper/magazine/TV interviews or in public speeches.

Two broad categories of Privileges:

• Collective Privileges – Those that are collectively enjoyed by the each House of Parliament.
• Individual Privileges – Those that are individually enjoyed by the members.

About the Privilege committee:

• Each House of Parliament is the guardian of its privileges. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have the authority to take suit- able action against anyone who breaches the privileges of its members or commits contempt of the House.
• There are two mechanisms by which Parliament takes up these matters. The first is by a member raising the issue on the floor of the House, and then the House decides on it.
• But Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha usually send the matter for a detailed examination to their Privilege committee. The committee recommends to the House a course of action which is then accepted by it.
• This Committee consists of 15 members (10 members in case of Rajya Sabha) nominated by the Speaker (Chairman in case of Rajya Sabha).
• Its function is to examine every question involving breach of privilege of the House or of the members of any Committee therefore referred to it by the House or by the Speaker.
• It determines with reference to the facts of each case whether a breach of privilege is involved and makes suitable recommendations in its report.
• It also states the procedure to be followed by the House in giving effect to the recommendations made by it.
• When a question of privilege is referred to the Committee by the House, the report of the Committee is presented to the House by the Chairman or, in his absence, by any member of the Committee.
• Where a question of privilege is referred to the Committee by the Speaker under rule 227, the report of the Committee is presented to the Speaker who may pass final orders thereon or direct that it be laid on the Table of the House.
• The Speaker/ Chairman may refer to the Committee any petition regarding disqualification of a member on ground of defection for making a preliminary inquiry and submitting a report to him.
• The procedure to be followed by the Committee in these cases is so far as may be same as applicable to questions of breach of privilege.

What kinds of cases come to the committee?

• Usually, the committees examine cases where MPs complain that an outsider has breached their privilege.
• For example, the Lok Sabha committee recently looked at multiple instances in which MPs alleged that government officials have either violated protocol or been unresponsive. But this year, MPs have also brought questions about breach of privilege by other MPs.
• In Rajya Sabha, MPs have brought eight cases of breach of privilege against their colleagues. These are about video recording unauthorised proceedings, gross disorderly conduct, repeated submission of identical notices, disrespectful observations against the chairman, misleading the media about the house proceedings.

What actions can the committee take?

• The Committee of Privileges has the power to recommend to the House for its consideration the issuance of admonitions, reprimands, suspension and, in rare cases, expulsion from the House.
• The convention followed by the committee of both Houses is that if the MP against whom a privilege House proceedings matter is raised gives an unqualified apology the issue is allowed to rest.