The Lok Sabha took up for discussion a report of the Ethics Committee recommending the expulsion of TMC MP Mahua Moitra in the ‘cash-for-query’ case, with opposition members seeking more time to study the 495-page document.
The report was tabled in the House around noon.
As soon as the House met again at 2 pm after an adjournment, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion for discussion on the panel report.
Speaker Om Birla said if some strict decisions had to be taken against any member, they had to be taken to uphold the dignity of the House.
He said it was painful that at times the House had to take up such matters. But, he said, it is because the dignity of the institution had to be maintained at any cost.
Birla said it was the collective duty of the House to take steps to ensure the prestige of the institution remained unblemished.
He said the House would discuss the report for half-an-hour but opposition members insisted that more time be given.
A report of the parliamentary committee on ethics that would decide the fate of Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra in the ‘cash-for-query’ case was tabled in Lok Sabha on Friday.
The report was tabled amid slogan-shouting by a united opposition.
Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee protested in the Well saying the copy of the report titled ‘The first report of the committee on ethics’ had not been made available to the members of the House.
A united opposition protested against the report being tabled and termed it as an attack on a “woman’s dignity”.
Opposition members have insisted that there should be a discussion on the recommendations before a decision is taken on Moitra.
The committee headed by Vinod Kumar Sonkar, at a meeting on November 9, adopted its report recommending Moitra’s expulsion from Lok Sabha over the “cash-for-query” allegation.
Six members of the panel, including Congress MP Preneet Kaur, who had earlier been suspended from the party, voted in favour of the report. Four members of the panel belonging to opposition parties submitted dissenting notes.
The Opposition members termed the report a “fixed match” and said the complaint filed by BJP Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey, which the panel reviewed, was not supported by a “shred of evidence”.
Moitra can be expelled only if the House votes in favour of the panel’s recommendation.
The report was earlier listed in the agenda of the Lower House for December 4 but was not tabled.
