Polity

Neyawn These are very good questions :)

Q1. During Question Hour, if A question is asked to a minister by an MP....but Minister doesn't reply or ignore, can privilege motion be moved against the minister?

If a valid question is asked to a minister, he must acknowledge it. If he does not, then a motion of privilege may be moved against him for not observing the rules of procedure of the House. The matter may be referred to the privilege committee which investigates and submits the report to the House.

That being said, this rule does not bind the minister to answer all the questions. There have been many instances when a Minister did not give an answer to a question on a delicate matter involving the security of the state, on matters sub-judice before courts, relating to internal affairs of a foreign nation, relating to the internal working of the cabinet, cabinet committees, etc.

Secondly, any such question must not relate to a matter with which a Minister is not officially connected. Like questions about anything said or done by a minister in a non-official capacity are not permitted. In which case, he can ignore them. Usually, Speaker or Chairman intervenes and restrains the questioner. So, a member cannot ask anything and expect the minister to answer!

Q2- Starred or unstarred question can be raised in any language of the 8th schedule??

Yes, they may be raised in any language of the 8th schedule, but a member using any of those languages (other than English and Hindi) must give an advance intimation to that effect. This advance intimation is given on a working day preceding the day on which the question is listed for an answer. This is possible because both the Houses have simultaneous interpretation arrangements. You would have seen our parliamentarians wearing headsets during the proceedings of the House. This kind of flexibility is necessary given the linguistic diversity we possess.

Q3-In a scenario of ruckus in parliament, and marshals and Parliament security service are unable to tackle MP fighting themselves...Can DELHI POLICE OR ARMY BE CALLED INSIDE PARLIAMENT PREMISES??

Haha. Why do you want Police and Army in the House?

There has been no such precedent and no rules in that regard. Parliament has its own security service. Marshals have been appointed to assist, advise and protect the Chair (Speaker/Chairman). Parliamentarians are not armed men who cannot be dealt with Marshals! Marshals open/close the gates of the lobby at the direction of the Chair. They are distinguished people and capable of maintaining security and decorum.

Q4-Is it permissible that During question hour ...An MP asks question in any other language which minister doest know.....can he refuse to reply back if THAT DAY TRANSLATOR SERVICE IS NOT AVAILABLE??

As I wrote earlier, simultaneous interpretation arrangements are provided in the House. If the system is not working, then it will be fixed. Again, the rules of the house do not say anything about the failure of translator service.

That's Parliament- the most important institution of the country and not an average government office by any means!

Q7- Can Prime Minister appoint himself as Speaker of house?

No. Prime Minister is an executive. He cannot be the Chair of the legislature! It is a classic case of violation of the separation of powers. It is for this reason, PM as the leader of the ruling party, proposes a name of a person, who is not a minister, for the office of Speaker!

This is not a rule but a healthy convention of parliamentary model.

Q5-During question hour if Minister replies to a starred question but if PM feels s/he has not given satisfactory remark to the house...IN THIS CASE, CAN PM HIMSELF FURTHER CLARIFY ON THE MATTER??

Question Hour is available ordinarily for asking and answering questions only. So, the agenda of Question Hour as to what all questions will be put up, who will be asking, etc. is pre-decided a day earlier. If a certain question has not been answered properly during the Question Hour, the PM cannot just stand up and clarify the matter because that was not part of the agenda for Question Hour. This is not allowed because it would act as a brake on the progress of questions and answers during the limited time available and eventually that hour may be lost.

For this reason, if you have observed the proceedings, no point of order is permitted during Question Hour. Question Hour is the smoothest of all different activities inside the Parliament.

However, any member is entitled to challenge a wrong statement made by a minister not during Question Hour but at some other time. This happens all the time and the PM can offer clarification on the matter if such a matter is raised. Usually, a PM would not suo-moto correct his own minister. It would not reflect well for the government of the day. Anyway, the opposition is always on the lookout for any small matter, so PM does not have to live with crisis of conscience if a minister commits a mistake. The watchful opposition would point out mistakes.

@Aliias you have your answers :)

In the questions you have asked, try to see the reason over why something would be allowed or not allowed. While this may look like matter of fact for you, try to see the logic behind things.

Can delhi police be brought in the house? If we reach that stage then democracy is by all means in threat. 

Some years ago, in Karnataka the Speaker had asked the police to interface, and police did, but not without consequences.

https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/police-entered-karnataka-assembly-on-speaker-039-s-request-4999.html

Such actions smell of executive conspiracy, and rule book does not provide for such things.

In the end you may end up with an answer like, the aggrived can petition the courts for justice ( not under grounds of violation of RoP so much, but for violations of constitutional principles. )

Hello,

Few of the questions above are concerned with very procedural aspects of Rules of Conduct. This is not what is required for the exam.

@AzadHindFauz can you answer some of these questions ?