Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's suspension from Lok Sabha revoked

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's suspension from Lok Sabha was revoked on Wednesday, hours after a parliamentary panel made a recommendation to the effect.

"The suspension of Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, MP from the service of the House which was effected on 10.8.2023 till the submission of the Report by the Committee of Privileges, has been revoked with effect from 30.8.2023," a notification by the Lok Sabha Secretariat said.

Earlier in the day, Chowdhury appeared before the Privileges Committee of Lok Sabha and expressed regret over his conduct in the House following which the panel unanimously adopted a resolution to revoke his suspension. The report of the committee was immediately communicated to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

Appearing before the committee, Chowdhury also expressed regret over certain remarks made by him in the House which had led to his suspension from the Lok Sabha on the penultimate day of the monsoon session of Parliament on August 10.

Chowdhury is learnt to have told the committee, chaired by BJP member Sunil Kumar Singh, that it was never his intention to hurt anybody's feelings and expressed regret for certain remarks made by him.

"The committee has adopted a resolution to revoke the suspension of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from the Lok Sabha. The resolution will be sent to the Speaker as soon as possible," a committee member said.

Chowdhury was named by Birla for "unruly conduct" on August 10 and was suspended from the membership of Lok Sabha pending a report from the Privileges Committee.

At the meeting of the committee on August 18, several members were of the view that Chowdhury has been punished for his conduct by Lok Sabha and there was no further need to examine his behaviour by a parliamentary panel.

However, as a process of natural justice, the committee had asked Chowdhury to appear before it on Wednesday.