The suspension of 11 Rajya Sabha MPs, held guilty of breach of privilege by a Rajya Sabha Committee, was revoked today ahead of the Budget Session which starts tomorrow.
The revocation came after Chairman Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankhar, invoked his authority to end the suspension of members.
"Chairman Rajya Sabha invoked the authority vested in him including under Rules 202 and 266 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) to revoke their suspension enabling the members to attend the Special address by the President to be held on January 31," said a source.
146 MPs - including members of both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha - were suspended last month during the Winter Session of Parliament for staging protests in demand of a statement by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the security breach in Parliament.
Of the 146, 132 MPs were suspended for the remainder of the session. So, their suspension was revoked when the session concluded.
For the remaining 14 MPs - 11 from Rajya Sabha and 3 from Lok Sabha -the case was referred to the privileges committees of both the Houses.
While the Privileges Committee of Lok Sabha lifted the suspension of 3 Lok Sabha MPs on January 12, suspension of 11 Rajya Sabha MPs was revoked today.
On the Opposition's demand for the Home Minister's statement, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had maintained that security inside the House is under the secretariat's purview and that it will not let the Centre intervene. "The government cannot intervene in (responsibilities of) Lok Sabha secretariat. We will not allow that either," he had said.
The Opposition had alleged that the suspension of MPs was the government's ploy to pass key bills without any discussion.
Shocking scenes played out in the Lok Sabha chamber last month when two intruders jumped from desk to desk and deployed coloured smoke from canisters. Their co-accused staged a similar protest outside Parliament. They have told investigators that their objective was to draw attention to Manipur violence, unemployment and farmers' problems.
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