Naidu denies Bills being passed in undue haste

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 29 

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu today asserted he would not allow any effort to undermine the rights and privileges of the members. Underscoring there is no “smothering of the voice of Opposition” in the House, he said, the Council of States is not a party to making legislation in a hurry.

Responding to issues raised by Opposition members through a letter to him, the Chairman gave empirical evidence that the Rajya Sabha during the past years referred Bills to committees and took up short duration discussion and calling attention notices. He stated that concerns over happenings in the Lok Sabha were out of the House purview.

Between 1978 and 2013, he said, on 16 of those 36 years, the House took up short duration discussions ranging from one to five per year and for another 14 years from six to eight per year, for an average of less than three short duration discussions per session during those 30 years. As against this, two such discussions were held in the current session and one more could have been possible if the House was not disrupted for two and a half days.

Stating that three calling attention notices were taken up and more short duration discussions could be taken up during the remainder of the session, Chairman Naidu said: “This empirical evidence goes to prove that the complaint of smothering the voice of Opposition also does not stand scrutiny.”

Noting that it cannot be anybody’s case that every Bill should be referred to parliamentary committees for scrutiny, Naidu said such scrutiny is required if complex issues were involved in legislative proposals. He suggested codification of guidelines in the matter of such detailed scrutiny of Bills by a committee for future reference and clarity.

‘Allegations not justified’

During the last two years, eight of 10 Bills introduced in the House till the last session were referred to standing committees… such a record would not justify the allegation that the Rajya Sabha is a party to hurried legislation M Venkaiah Naidu, Rajya Sabha Chairman