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Lokpal bill goes to a fresh panel
-The Telegraph

The Lokpal bill faces further delay with the Rajya Sabha today referring it to a 15-member select committee by voice vote, but not before the Opposition accused the government of playing “games” and trying to bypass House business rules.

The select committee, to be made up by members from various parties, is to hand in its report by the last week of the monsoon session.

The BJP, CPM and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) outmanoeuvred a ruling coalition effort to “use the shoulder of a friendly Opposition” to make it look as though the proposal to further delay voting on the bill had come not from the UPA but the Samajwadis.

The Lok Sabha had passed the bill in end-December during the extended winter session. The Rajya Sabha took it up for discussion on December 29 but had no chance to vote before Chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the House at midnight over Opposition protests.

Today, at 5.40pm, minister V. Narayanasamy moved the bill, saying MPs had proposed 197 amendments to the version passed by the Lok Sabha.

He said the Prime Minister had held four meetings to sort out the differences between political parties over the bill’s contents, and that the gap had now narrowed. He listed some of the points on which consensus had been reached, particularly the Opposition demand that state legislatures be free to pass their own Lokayukta law.

Even before P.J. Kurien, the Chair, had asked leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley to make his remarks, the Samajwadi Party’s Naresh Agarwal got up to propose that the House refer the bill to a select committee of 15 MPs and suggested the 15 names.

BJP members cited House rules to vehemently dispute the Chair’s decision to give Agarwal the floor as well as the latter’s plea and his move to spell out the names. Under the rules, only the minister moving a bill can propose such a referral and the names of the panel members.

The BJP’s Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Maya Singh and others, the CPM’s Sitaram Yechury and the BSP’s Mayawati forced the government to concede that such a motion shouldn’t have come from Agarwal but from Narayanasamy.

Jaitley accused the Treasury benches, with Manmohan Singh in attendance, of lacking in sincerity and indulging in “games”.

He pointed out that the amended draft had been circulated last evening and “suddenly” added to today’s agenda on the session’s penultimate day, and then came the move for a referral. “We want and the country wants that the government comes out clearly on this issue,” he said.

Yechury and Mayawati too accused the government of subterfuge over the House rules. Narayanasamy then proposed a motion for referral to a select committee, which was passed by a voice vote.

The government proposed the same 15 names for the panel as Agarwal, a decision which will be taken in consultation with all the parties. The 15 are: Shantaram Naik, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, Shadi Lal Batra (all Congress), Jaitley, Rudy, Bhupendra Yadav (all BJP), K.N. Balagopal (CPM), Shivanand Tiwari (Janata Dal United), Tiruchi Shiva (DMK), Satish Mishra (BSP), D. Bandyopadhyay (Trinamul), Ramgopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party), D.P. Tripathi (NCP), V. Maithreyan (AIADMK) and A.K. Ganguly (Nominated member).

Select committees

Few bills are referred to a select committee though most — barring those replacing ordinances, non-controversial bills and money bills — go to a department-specific parliamentary standing committee.

A bill undergoes three readings in each House, the first consisting of its introduction, which follows the adoption of a motion for leave to introduce a bill in that House. It then usually goes to a standing committee.

The second reading starts after the committee submits its report (the deadline is three months) and has two stages. Stage I consists of a general discussion of the bill’s principles and provisions and any of these motions: that it be taken up for consideration; that it be referred to a select committee of the same House; or that it be referred to a joint committee of the Houses.

Stage II consists of a clause-by-clause consideration of the bill as introduced, or as reported by the select or joint committee. Amendments suggested by members are moved at this stage.

The third reading consists of discussion on a motion that the bill (or amended bill) be passed or returned (to the Lok Sabha in the case of a money bill).

After a bill is passed by one House, it is sent to the other House where it goes through the same procedure. However the bill is not again introduced in the other House; it is laid on the table of the other House which constitutes its first reading there.