Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has constituted a 15-member committee to examine leave applications submitted by Members of Parliament for their absence from House proceedings. The committee will be chaired by BJP leader Biplab Kumar Deb, The committee was formed on Monday against the backdrop of the Punjab and Haryana High Court hearing a plea filed by detained Lok Sabha MP Amritpal Singh.
Currently lodged in Dibrugarh jail, Singh has sought permission to attend the Parliament session arguing that prolonged absence could cost him his Lok Sabha membership if he remains away for 60 consecutive days. Singh had contended that he stood to lose his membership of the Lok Sabha if he remained absent from the House for 60 days. Elected to the Lok Sabha from the Khadoor Sahib constituency in the general elections last year, Singh has been detained in Assam under the National Security Act since 2023.
The Committee on Absence of Members from the Sittings of the House is chaired by Deb, a former Tripura chief minister, and includes 14 members: Saumitra Khan, Gyaneshwar Patil, Jai Prakash, Gopal Thakur, Mansukhbhai Vasava (all BJP), Anand Bhadauria (SP), Asit Kumar Mal (Trinamool), Gowaal Padavi, V K Sreekandan, and Prashant Padole (Congress), Amra Ram (CPI-M), Kesineni Sivanath (TDP), and Nalin Soren (JMM).
The Lok Sabha Speaker also constituted the Committee on Petitions, with BJP member Chandra Prakash Joshi as its Chairman. The committee includes Anto Antony, Sukhdeo Bhagat, and Rajmohan Unnithan (all Congress), Mitesh Patel, Raju Bista, Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Manju Sharma, Vishnu Datt Sharma (all BJP), Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer (AAP), Bastipati Nagaraju (TDP), Rajkumar Sangwan (RLD), Devesh Shakya (SP), and Abhay Kumar Sinha (RJD). Currently, both committees have 14 members, with one vacant seat each.
(With PTI inputs)
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