Parliamentary Proceedings: Understanding Devices and Procedures

• • 1st Hour of parliamentary sitting. Members ask questions and ministers give answers, sometimes questions can be asked to private members too.
  • Initially given by Indian Council Act 1892.
• Mentioned in Rules of Procedure.
• They are of three kinds:
• Starred Question: Require oral answer and Supplementary question can be asked.
• Unstarred Question: Require written answer and Supplementary question cannot be asked.
• Short Notice Question: Answered orally and asked on short notice of less than 10 days.

• Color Coding of Question Types: The list of starred, unstarred, short notice questions and questions to private members are printed in green, white, light pink and yellow colour, respectively, to distinguish them from one another. 

• Informal Device: Available to the members to raise various matters of urgent public importance.
• Duration and Timing: Starts immediately after the question hour and lasts until the agenda for the day.
• Indian Innovation: Not mentioned in the Rules of Procedure. It is an Indian innovation (existence since 1962).

• Discussions and Adoption of Motions: In Parliament, discussions on matters of general public importance require a motion with the consent of the presiding officer. 
  • The House expresses its decisions or opinions by adopting or rejecting motions, which can be moved by either ministers or private members.

•  Motions are of three categories:
  • Substantive Motion: Self-contained, Independent proposal dealing with a very important matter.
  • Substitute Motion: Proposes an alternative, if adopted by the House, it supersedes the original motion.
  • Subsidiary Motion: By itself has no meaning and cannot state the decision of the House without reference to the original motion or proceedings of the House. Its has three subcategories:
    • Ancillary Motion: It is used as the regular way of proceeding with various kinds of business.
    • Superseding Motion: It is moved in the course of debate on another issue and seeks to supersede that issue.
    • Amendment: It seeks to modify or substitute only a part of the original motion.

• • Moved by a member to cut short the debate, If approved, debate is stopped and the matter is put to vote.
• The four kinds of Closure motions are

• Simple Closure: Matter sufficiently discussed be now put to vote.
• Closure by Compartments: Clauses of a bill/resolution grouped before debate. The debate covers the part as a whole and the entire part is put to vote.
• Kangaroo Closure: Only important clauses are taken for debate and voted upon, other clauses are skipped and taken as passed.
• Guillotine Closure: When undiscussed clauses/resolutions are also put to vote along with the discussed ones due to want of time.

• Purpose of a Motion: A motion of breach of privilege is raised by a member in Parliament when they believe a minister has violated the privileges of the House or its members by withholding or distorting facts. 
• Element of Censure: The motion is aimed at censuring the concerned minister.

• Moved by a member to call the attention of a minister to a matter of urgent public importance.
• Indian Innovation:  Mentioned in rules of procedure (existence since 1954).

• Objective: To draw attention of the House to definite matters of urgent public importance.
• Extraordinary Device: This interrupts normal business of the House.
• Only in Lok Sabha: Rajya Sabha is not permitted to use this motion, involving an element of censure against the government.
• Support of 50 Members: Needs support of 50 members for this motion to be adopted.
• Minimum Duration: The discussion on an adjournment motion should last for not less than two hours and thirty minutes.
• Restrictions on Motion for Adjournment: Not cover more than one matter; specific matter of recent occurrence and should not be framed in general terms; not raise a question of privilege; not discussed earlier (same session); not deal with any matter that is under adjudication by court; not raise any question that can be raised on a distinct motion.

• Addressing Fractured Mandates: The motion of confidence has emerged as a procedural tool to address situations of fractured mandates, leading to hung parliaments, minority governments, and coalition governments. 
• Presidential Intervention: In cases where governments with slim majorities face uncertainty, the President may demand a demonstration of their majority in the House. 
  • Alternatively, governments may voluntarily seek to prove their majority by proposing a motion of confidence. 
• Consequences: If the confidence motion fails, it leads to the collapse of the government.

• Article 75: Council of ministers shall be collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha. This principle is the bedrock of parliamentary democracy.
• Rule 198: Not mentioned in the Constitution, is moved under Rule 198 of rules of procedure and can be moved only in Lok Sabha.[UPSC 2014]
• Conditional on Majority: Ministry stays in office till they enjoy confidence of the majority of the members of the Lok Sabha
• 50 Members Mandated: Needs support of 50 members for this motion to be adopted.
• No need to state the reasons for its adoption.
• Resignation: Moved only against the entire CoM only (Not against individual/ group of ministers) and if passed, the CoM must resign from office.

• Disapproval of Policy: Moved to seek the disapproval of certain policies of the government.
• Requires a Reason: Need to state the reasons for its adoption.
• Applicability: Can be moved against an individual minister or a group of ministers or the entire council of ministers.
• No Resignation: If it is passed in the Lok Sabha, the CoM need not resign from the office.

• Address of President: The first session after each general election and every fiscal year; outlines govt. policies. Discussed in both the Houses of Parliament.
• Put to vote and the motion must be passed otherwise it amounts to defeat of the Government.

• Adjournment of Debate: It is a motion for the adjournment of the debate on a bill/ motion/ Resolution etc.
  • This motion is to retard or delay the progress of a business under consideration of the House
• Conditions for Moving the Motion: It can be moved by a member at any time after a motion has been made.
  • Debate must be restricted to the matter contained in the motion.
• Speaker’s Discretion: If the Speaker thinks that such a motion is an abuse of the rules of the House, he/she may either forthwith put the question thereon or decline to propose the question.

• Utilization: Members can raise points of order when proceedings of the house do not follow normal rule of procedure; 
  • Usually Opposition members raise this device.
• Scope and Criteria: It should relate to the interpretation or enforcement of the Rules/articles of the Constitution that regulate the business of the House 
  • Also It should raise a question that is within the cognizance of the Speaker.
• Extraordinary Device: As it suspends the proceedings before the House and debate is not allowed on a point of order.

• Matter of Public Importance: It is meant for discussing a matter of sufficient public importance.
• Three Days in a Week: The Speaker can allot three days in a week for such discussions.
• No Formal Motion: There is no formal motion or voting before the House.

• Also known as a two-hour discussion, the time allotted should not exceed two hours for discussion. 
• Matter of Public Importance: Members can raise such discussions on a matter of urgent public importance.
• Two Days in a Week: The Speaker can allot two days in a week for such discussions.
• No Formal Motion: There is neither a formal motion before the house nor voting. 
• This device has been in existence since 1953.

• Special Mention in Rajya sabha: A matter that doesn’t qualify as a point of order or cannot be raised during question hour, half-an-hour discussion, short duration discussion, or under adjournment motion, calling attention notice, or any other rule of the House can be brought up under the special mention in the Rajya Sabha
• Noitce Under Rule 377: In the Lok Sabha its procedural equivalent is referred to as ‘Notice (Mention) Under Rule 377’.

Youth Parliament

• Parliamentary Education Programs: Started on the recommendation of the Fourth All India Whips Conference to acquaint the younger generations with the practices and procedures of Parliament, to imbibe the spirit of discipline and tolerance, values of democracy and proper perspective on the functioning of democratic institutions.
• Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs:  Provides necessary training and encouragement to the states in introducing the scheme.