Chandigarh: Opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) members were on Monday barred from attending a part of the day`s proceedings in the Haryana Assembly for creating a ruckus over an adjournment motion, regarding the conviction of their party chief Om Prakash Chautala in the teacher`s recruitment scam case.
Speaker Kuldeep Sharma had initially adjourned the proceedings for 15 minutes, but the Opposition members came back to protest after the House reconvened.
Opposition members argued that an adjournment motion was an extraordinary feature which leads to the setting aside of the normal business of the House for discussions on a matter of "urgent public importance".
Thus, when the Congress MLA from Nalwa and former INLD leader Sampat Singh, started reading out the motion today, senior INLD leader Ramphal Majra countered him saying that the rules did not permit the House to take up a matter which was "sub-judice".
Countering him, Randeep Singh Surjewala said that Opposition members were misleading the House as Chautala`s conviction was sub-judice only insofar as the appeal against his sentence was pending in court.
"It is only a motion pertaining to probity in public life. Why are they (INLD members) shying away from having a discussion on it? They have no constructive suggestion to make, they have nothing to say on this issue..." Surjewala said even as 11 Congress legislators stood up in favour of the motion.
But as Sampat began reading out the motion, loud protests from INLD members prompted the Speaker to direct marshals to lead the dissenting MLAs out of the House.
In the absence of INLD members, Sampat was then allowed to read out his motion in which he laid stress on probity in public life and referred to Chautala saying that the former chief minister had "no moral right to continue as member of the legislative assembly and the leader of Opposition".
Today marked the third instance in the current session when INLD members, along with their ally and lone Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) representative in the Haryana Assembly, Charanjit Singh, have been barred from attending the day`s proceedings in the House for unruly behaviour.
Former Haryana chief minister Chautala has been convicted along with his son Ajay and 53 others in the Junior Basic Teachers recruitment scam in 2000.
PTI
