Member questions Speaker's ruling, LS adjourned till 1400hrs

New Delhi, Oct 23 (UNI) The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the second time today till 1400 hrs as Mr Barjesh Pathak(BSP) questioned Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's ruling that his complaint of an alleged threat to him by CBI officials be treated as closed.

After laying down of papers by various Ministers and members and the issue of expulsion of Mr Babubhai Katara was taken up in the House, the Speaker made a mention of Mr Pathak's complaint of July 22 wherein the member had alleged that CBI officials threatened BSP members to support the UPA government during the confidence motion failing which their leader would be implicated in several cases.

Mr Chatterjee said, after going through the complaint of the member and other relevant documents, he sent them to the Department of Personnel Affairs for verification.

He also asked the Minister of Home Affairs to give protection to Mr Pathak.

The Speaker said he was concerned about Mr Pathak's welfare and sent him flowers and his best wishes.

On this, Mr Pathak got up and said the his case should be sent to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee for investigation and to establish the truth.

Mr Pathak said the matter being referred to the investigating agency which itself was involved in the "murky affair" was unfair.

On this, Mr Chatterjee described Mr Pathak's commments as "unfortunate and tantamount to questioning the Speaker's ruling". He said after his ruling, opening up of the issue would establish a "dangerous trend" in the House.

Mr Mohammad Salim(CPI-M), some BJP members as well as Mr K Yerran Naidu(TDP) wanted the matter be referred to the Privileges Committee.

As the Speaker refused to comply with the members' wishes and noisy scenes continued, he declared adjournment of the house till 1400 hrs.

Earlier, the House was adjourned till 1200 hrs following uproarious scenes created by the DMK members on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue and the demand for discussion on various topics raised by the other opposition parties. The second adjournment took place at 1230 hrs.

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