Privilege notice against Prime Minister disallowed

New Delhi, Oct 24 (UNI) Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today disallowed the notices of a question of privilege against the Prime Minister based on his reply to the Motion of Confidence on July 22, 2008.

Giving his ruling just after the over of the question hour in the Lok Sabha, Mr Chatterjee said he has received notices of question of privilege from Mr Basudeb Acharia, Mr Rupchand Pal, Mr K Yerrannaidu, Mr Varkala Radhakrishnan, Mr N N Krishna Das and Mr P Rajendran.

The Speaker said though the Prime Minister in his reply in the house on July 22 has catagorically stated that he will come back to Parliament before operationing the nuclear agreement, his failure to do so does not amount to breach of privilege or contempt of the House as raised by the members through their notices.

He said since the Prime Minister is not a member of the House, before referring the matter to the presiding officer of the other House, it is necessary as per the established procedure, to be satisfied that a breach of privilege has been committed.

In this context, the views of Mr Acharia was heard since the notices of all other members were identical in nature so it was not necessary to hear all the members, the Speaker ruled.

The charge against the Prime Minister was that he has not fulfilled an assurance given by him to this House on July 22, 2008.

He said, according to Kaul and Shakdher, it is well established that "Non-implementation of an assurance given by a Minister on the floor of the House is neither a breach of privilege nor a contempt of the House".

UNI BKS NK AS1337