RS rules review committee submits report to Naidu recommending comprehensive changes

The rules review committee of Rajya Sabha on Friday submitted its report to Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu recommending comprehensive changes including amendments to 77 existing rules besides proposing 124 new ones.

The committee formed by the chairman in May 2018 comprising former Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha V K Agnihotri and former additional secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, Dinesh Bharadwaj, submitted the 387-page report which has also recommended 84 new directions to be issued by the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, sources said.

It also made 25 other suggestions/observations, they said, without elaborating.

As per Article 118(1) of the Constitution, each House of Parliament makes rules for regulating its procedure and the conduct of its business.

With a view to make the functioning of the Rajya Sabha more effective, a need was felt to review the existing rules of the Rajya Sabha and Naidu had constituted the two-member panel.

The mandate of the committee was to recommend amendments/ suggestions to Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) in the context of prevailing practices in Lok Sabha, other legislatures of the country and also the practices in the cohort of some of the Commonwealth countries, the sources said.

The report will now be considered by the Rules Committee and thereafter the recommendations of the Rules Committee will be placed before the House for its approval.