Haryana Speaker debars INLD MLA Abhay Chautala from Monday’s assembly session

Mar 20, 2023 01:53 PM IST

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Action after MLA used ‘unparliamentary language’ against Gian Chand Gupta during question hour despite being cautioned

The ongoing war of words between the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Gian Chand Gupta and Abhay Singh Chautala on Monday led to the lone INLD MLA’s being debarred from attending the House proceedings for the day as he used unparliamentary language against the Chair alleging bias.

Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) legislator Abhay Singh Chautala (in black jacket) attending the proceedings of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh on Friday. Speaker Gian Chand Gupta asked him to leave the House on Monday after he got into an argument with him yet again. (Keshav Singh/HT)

Also read: Legislature v/s Judiciary: Haryana House decides not to reply to HC notice

The MLA got into an argument with the Speaker when he asked him to go ahead with a supplementary question related to the main question. He even threatened to ask a question in the House that would embarrass the Speaker. At this, the Speaker told Chautala that he could go ahead and ask anything he wanted to. Instead, Chautala accused Gupta of bias, which he denied. “Your behaviour is not appropriate. I am naming you. Please go out of the House,” the Speaker told the MLA.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar condemned Chautala’s “unparliamentary behaviour” and said that respecting the Chair is the duty of every member. He said that arguing with the Speaker is against the dignity of the House. The CM said every member has equal right of raising an issue before the Speaker. However, misbehaving with the Speaker is not expected from any member and strict cognizance should be taken against such incidents.

Last week, the Haryana assembly had passed a resolution for not submitting a reply to a Punjab and Haryana high court notice in the case of the naming of the INLD MLA for two days by the Speaker. State parliamentary affairs minister Kanwar Pal Gujjar had moved the resolution and the House passed it with a voice vote. Gupta had termed the high court notice “an infringement on the rights of the legislature”.

On February 21, the Speaker had named Chautala for two days for casting aspersions on the Chair during an argument between the two. The next day, Chautala had moved the high court for setting aside the Speaker’s order and the notice was issued to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, seeking its response by March 23. The court did not stay the Speaker’s order.