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Current session of Parliament illegal: CPI(M)
New Delhi, Feb 03: Terming as ``illegal`` the proceedings in the current session of Parliament, the CPI(M) today alleged ``serious constitutional impropriety`` in summoning the Houses and said it will move the court to seek an interpretation in the matter.
New Delhi, Feb 03: Terming as ''illegal'' the proceedings in the current session of Parliament, the CPI(M) today alleged ''serious constitutional impropriety'' in summoning the Houses and said it
will move the court to seek an interpretation in the matter.
CPI(M) leader in the Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee said the manner in which the current session was summoned violated the constitutional provision which stipulates that the first session of the year must be addressed by the president when the last session was adjourned sine die.
''It is a very serious manner in which the houses were summoned, and going by the constitutional provision the proceedings in this session are illegal,'' he said.
To a question, he said the speaker was at liberty to re-convene a session adjourned sine die, provided it was not the first session of the year which should start with the presidential address. Chatterjee said while neither Lok Sabha speaker Manohar Joshi nor Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj gave a clear reply to the Opposition question on the legality of the proceedings, the CPI(M) was considering moving the court to seek an interpretation of the matter.
He, however, said the party was unlikely to seek a stay order from the court on the proceedings of the houses since such a move would deadlock the country's governance.
Coming down heavily on the NDA government for its ''despotic'' way of functioning, Chatterjee alleged that the Opposition was not consulted for once before summoning the Houses.
''It is a matter of great concern that the government considers Parliament as a backyard organisation of the NDA,'' he said.
Bureau Report
''It is a very serious manner in which the houses were summoned, and going by the constitutional provision the proceedings in this session are illegal,'' he said.
To a question, he said the speaker was at liberty to re-convene a session adjourned sine die, provided it was not the first session of the year which should start with the presidential address. Chatterjee said while neither Lok Sabha speaker Manohar Joshi nor Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj gave a clear reply to the Opposition question on the legality of the proceedings, the CPI(M) was considering moving the court to seek an interpretation of the matter.
He, however, said the party was unlikely to seek a stay order from the court on the proceedings of the houses since such a move would deadlock the country's governance.
Coming down heavily on the NDA government for its ''despotic'' way of functioning, Chatterjee alleged that the Opposition was not consulted for once before summoning the Houses.
''It is a matter of great concern that the government considers Parliament as a backyard organisation of the NDA,'' he said.
Bureau Report