The virtual split of the Public Accounts Committee and election of Congress’ Saifuddin Soz as chairman by 11 of its members supporting ruling Congress-led coalition and they then passing a resolution rejecting the draft report on 2G scam prepared by its chief Murli Manohar Joshi has come for sharp criticism by the legal experts, saying the whole exercise goes against the parliamentary conventions.
The experts were of the view that the PAC basically is an “Opposition venture” to keep a check on the financial expenditure by the government and therefore, the majority in the panel is that of the Opposition parties.
Former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap, considered an authority on parliamentary rules and procedures, even termed the attempt of the 11 members to appoint Mr Soz as chairman without taking the Speaker into confidence as “outright contempt” of the LS. “It is a outright contempt of the House (Lok Sabha) as well as the committee itself. It is a breach of the parliamentary privilege and what happened is most unfortunate against constitutional and parliamentary culture,” he said.
Mr Kashyap said the PAC is essentially a committee of the LS and not a joint committee as the seven MPs from the Upper House in it are only “associate members”. The RS MPs are considered associate members as the PAC deals with the financial matters on, “which are entirely in the province of Lok Sabha. So the chairman has to be a member of the Lok Sabha and that too from the Opposition,” he said. The appointment of Mr Soz as chairman for any purpose was not legal. “In law, Soz’s appointment is non-est. It does not exist in law. So amendments could be moved (by the full PAC),” Mr Kashyap opined.
However, Mr Kashyap, who had closely watched the functioning of Parliament for years, described the development “unfortunate” for the country’s democratic system. To a pointed question whether by forming a parallel PAC without taking the Speaker into confidence amounted to breach of privilege, Mr Kashyap said “Of course, it is an unfortunate incident and a breach of privilege. It is a contempt of the House and the committee (PAC).”
Though several other senior lawyers also had identical views, but they refused to be specific on the issue of “contempt” of LS or the breach of privileges, saying for that they would have to go deep into the procedural aspects and conventions guiding the functioning of the parliamentary system.