Speakers to talk on party-shifting ministers' expulsion

Speakers of all state legislatures will deliberate upon the provisions for suspension of MLAs and MPs on changing their parties, in a conference chaired by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

The two-day conference will be held in Dehradun starting from December 18 in which presiding officers will discuss the 'Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and the Role of the Speaker', the Lok Sabha secretariat said in a statement on Saturday.

In the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, provisions have been made for disqualification of Members of Parliament or Members of State Legislatures on the basis of change of party which is decided by the Chairman or Speaker of the respective House.

Another topic of discussion in the conference will be strengthening parliamentary democracy and capacity building through in-house devices including Zero Hour, the secretariat said.

During the Zero Hour, members can raise such matters which they consider to be of urgent public importance and which they want to avoid due to delay in raising them under normal procedure rules.

On August 28, Birla had held a meeting with the presiding officers of state legislatures in the national capital and had constituted different committees on three different subjects.

These three committees will submit their reports along with recommendations on these important topics during the '79th Conference of Presiding Officers of Legislative Bodies in India' in Dehradun, it said.

The forum of Conference of Presiding Officers of Legislative Bodies was launched in 1921 to help the presiding officers in developing and preserving healthy traditions and conventions in parliamentary institutions.