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Panel seeks ‘due’ respect for MPs
At a time when the right of use of beacon lights is under the Supreme Court scanner, a Parliamentary Committee has pitched for its usage by MPs. The panel has not only recommended that MPs should be entitled to having red beacons atop their vehicles but also that they be treated on par with Chief Justices of High Courts in the Warrant of Precedence.
The apex court is examining whether beacon lights must be issued to a privileged few in the society as the concept of public servants is meant to be “servants” of the public and not masters. On the issue, all States and Union Territories have been asked to respond. The matter will be heard by a bench of Justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhyay on December 9.
The panel has also recommended that the Ministry of Surface Transport should issue a notification under the provisions of the Central Motor Vehicles Act, permitting the use of red light beacons atop the vehicles of MPs.
If the recommendation is accepted, importance of MPs in the Government list of VIPs would go from 21 to 17, which would place them above Cabinet Ministers of State Governments, who are currently placed at number 18 in the Warrant of Precedence.
The report by the PC Chacko-headed Lok Sabha’s Committee of Privileges, which was tabled in the House on Wednesday, also recommended that former Lok Sabha Speakers should be placed at number seven in the Warrant of Precedence on par with Union Cabinet Ministers, former Prime Ministers and Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
At present, former Speakers of Lok Sabha are not part of the Warrant of Precedence, while the Speaker is placed at number 6 along with the Chief Justice of India.
Taking note of “recurrent instances” of protocol violations and discourteous behaviour by Government officials while dealing with MPs, the panel also expressed “displeasure” that MPs are placed “much below their status and lower to persons not holding constitutional offices and even bureaucrats”.
The report said, “Due courtesies and regard are not being shown to MPs by Government officers. A large number of complaints received by the Lok Sabha Secretariat from members of the Lok Sabha regarding protocol violations is a testimony of this malice.”
The committee felt that there was an urgent need to consolidate circulars issued on different subjects by various Ministries and departments of the Central Government from time to time and reiterate the same once again to bring them to the notice of all Government functionaries.
According to the report, a penal clause has been inserted in the revised circular “whereby violations of these instructions would entail departmental inquiry and punishment to the guilty officials as per rules.”
