A breach of privilege notice against Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut was referred to the Committee of Privileges for investigation by Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar for his alleged remarks calling the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly a “house of thieves”.
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According to a Rajya Sabha bulletin published on May 17, Maharashtra Legislature Secretariat on April 6, sent a communication to the Upper House urging that a privilege notice be considered against Shiv Sena (Udhav Thackeray) MP Mr. Raut for his comments, “This is not ‘Vidhan Mandal’ [Legislature] but ‘Chor Mandal’ [House of Thieves]”.
Maharashtra Speaker has concluded, as per the communication from the State, that Mr. Raut’s comment amounted to “breach of privilege and contempt of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and its members.”
But as per the convention when a question of breach of privilege is raised in any Legislature in which a Member of another Legislature is involved, the Presiding Officer should refer the matter to the Presiding Officer of the Legislature to which that Member belongs and the latter should deal with the matter in the same way as if it were a breach of privilege of that House.
Citing this, Mr. Dhankhar has referred the complaint to the Privileges Committee for further investigation.