LS privileges panel to probe Chowdhury's 'misconduct' at meet on Friday

The Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha will probe on Friday the complaint of misconduct against Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who was suspended from the lower house last week.

The committee, chaired by BJP member Sunil Kumar Singh, is set to deliberate on the motion adopted by the Lok Sabha on August 10 on the "gross, deliberate and repeated misconduct of Chowdhury in utter disregard to the House and authority of the Chair.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had objected to the behaviour of Chowdhury and BJP member Virendra Singh during the debate on the no-confidence motion against the government.

Singh, the BJP member from Ballia, had tendered an apology to the Chair for his conduct in the House, and escaped action.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi termed Chowdhury's actions as "habitual" and deliberate.

Joshi said Chowdhury had repeatedly disrupted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reply to the debate on no-confidence motion and also interrupted speeches of Home Minister Amit Shah and other ministers in the Lok Sabha.

"In spite of repeated requests and repeated warnings from the Chair also, he has not improved himself. And, always in his debates, he makes baseless charges," Joshi said before moving a motion for Chowdhury's suspension from the House pending investigation by the Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha.