Question Hour and Zero Hour
- September 3, 2020
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Subject: Polity
Context:
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats notified that there will be no Question Hour during the Monsoon Session of Parliament in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, and that Zero Hour will be restricted in both Houses
Concept:
Question Hour
- The first hour of every parliamentary sitting is slotted for this.
- Question Hour is the liveliest hour in Parliament. It is during this one hour that Members of Parliament ask questions of ministers and hold them accountable for the functioning of their ministries.
- The questions that MPs ask are designed to elicit information and trigger suitable action by ministries.
- The questions are of three kinds, namely, starred, unstarred and short notice.
- Parliament has comprehensive rules for dealing with every aspect of Question Hour.
- And the presiding officers of the two houses are the final authority with respect to the conduct of Question Hour
Zero Hour
- Unlike the question hour, the zero hour is not mentioned in the Rules of Procedure.
- Thus it is an informal device available to the members of the Parliament to raise matters without any prior notice.
- The zero hour starts immediately after the question hour and lasts until the agenda for the day (ie, regular business of the House) is taken up.
- In other words, the time gap between the question hour and the agenda is known as zero hour. It is an Indian innovation in the field of parliamentary procedures and has been in existence since 1962.