Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day on Wednesday to mourn the demise of Odisha lawmaker Lodu Kishore Swain.
Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 2 pm as Congress members pressed for the resignation of the Home Minister on the NRC issue. The latter half of the session was also washed out as Samajwadi Party members raised slogans and disrupted the upper House in protest against the 13-Point Roster.
Here are the live updates:
Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar speaks to the media regarding the 13-Point Roster. Reservation on teaching staff in Universities were being done considering the whole University as a single entity. But Allahabad University recently passed a judgment and the Roster system was changed.
"We filed a SLP (Special Leave Petition) in the Supreme Court, but the verdict was not in our favour despite our arguments," Mr. Javadekar says. Mr. Javadekar says the government will file a review petition and they are committed to the upliftment of the socially-backward classes.
Samajwadi Party member Ramgopal Yadav raises the issue of 13-Point Roster. He seeks a discussion.
Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar says the government had moved a Special Leave Petition and now we will move a review petition. "We will pursue the matter," he says. But the protesting members are not happy with the Minister's reply.
House is adjourned for the day.
Rajya Sabha reassembles. Deputy Chairperson Harivansh is in the Chair. Opposition members chant anti-government slogans.
Kiren Rijiju introduces a Bill to amend the Constitution. The Constitution (125th Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks to bring in tribal dominated autonomous district councils of North East under purview of the Finance Commission.
Rajya Sabha takes up Motion of Thanks to the President's address. Bhupinder Yadav is the first speaker. His speech is interrupted.
Congress member Ripun Bora had moved an adjournment motion seeking explanation from the Home Ministry and a statement from the Home Minister over Supreme Court's indictment of Home Ministry on the NRC issue.
The Congress members have demanded the Home Minister's resignation.
Speaking to The Hindu in the Parliament premises, Mr. Bora says Congress will raise the issue in the second half of the session and would demand the Home Minister's resignation.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday accused the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of attempting to “destroy the Assam NRC [National Register of Citizens] process from the very beginning.”
The outburst from a Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Rohinton Nariman came as soon as Attorney General K.K. Venugopal urged the court to keep the ongoing work on the NRC in abeyance during the Lok Sabha polls.
Rajya Sabha assembles. Chairperson M. Venkaiah Naidu is in the Chair. Members tables papers listed under their names.
Mr. Venkaiah Naidu informs the House that two members won't be able to attend the proceedings. House approves. Mr. Naidu says the members must give valid reason for absence. "Ill-health is fine, but party work, family work are not accepted as valid reason," he says. Jose K. Mani had cited party work as reason for absence. However, the House approved his absence is approved this time, since he is a first-time member.
As the Chair proceeds to Zero Hour, members troop into the Well. House is adjourned till 2 pm.
Lok Sabha assembles. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is in the Chair. She announces the demise of Odisha member Ladu Kishore Swain. House pays silent tribute to the member. House is adjourned for the day.
Mr. Swain represented Odisha’s Aska constituency. He was reportedly suffering from kidney-related ailments.
It is a parliamentary convention that the House is adjourned for the day as a mark of respect if a sitting member passes away when a session is underway.
The parliamentarians from northeastern States protested against the Citizenship Amendment Bill that seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Veteran lawmaker Mulayam Singh Yadav also joined a protest against the 13-Point roster introduced in recruitment of teaching staff in Universities. The Samajwadi Party argues that the new method is discriminatory against the Dalits, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes.
