(Daily News Scan - DNS English) What is Question Hour?
The monsoon session of the Parliament has begun from 14th of September. For this Parliamentary session a decision was taken to go without Question Hour. This decision has raised some serious concerns regarding the democratic functioning of the institution. Question hour is an opportunity for the members to raise questions.
In this DNS, we will be discussing about the Question hour and its significance
The decision to skip Question Hour during the Monsoon session of Parliament has earned criticism.
With the ongoing issues in our country like the unprecedented decline in GDP and its impact on the economy, the New Education Policy, tensions at the border, rising unemployment, the miseries of migrant labour.
Questions regarding all these issues were supposed to be asked in the question hour session with the government.
Question hour is a parliamentary device primarily meant for exercising legislative control over executive actions.
What is Question hour?
The question hour is a one hour time where the ministers of the ruling party are questioned and held accountable for all the happenings going on in the country as well their specific areas. During this one hour, Members of Parliament (MPs) ask questions to ministers and hold them accountable for the functioning of their ministries.
The questions can also be asked to the private members (MPs who are not ministers).
The right to question the executive has been exercised by members of the House from the colonial period. The first Legislative Council in British India under the Charter Act, 1853, showed some degree of independence by giving members the power to ask questions to the executive.
Later, the Indian Council Act of 1861 allowed members to elicit information by means of questions. However, it was the Indian Council Act, 1892, which formulated the rules for asking questions including short notice questions.
The other stage of the development of procedures related to questions came up with the framing of rules under the Indian Council Act, 1909, which incorporated provisions for asking supplementary questions by members.
The Montague-Chelmsford reforms brought forth a significant change in 1919 by incorporating a rule that the first hour of every meeting was earmarked for questions. Parliament has continued this tradition.
In 1921, another change came up. The question on which a member desired to have an oral answer, was distinguished by him with an asterisk, a star. This marked the beginning of starred questions.
Basically the questions are categories into three types.
- The first being the Starred Question – This type of question requires an oral answer.
- The second type of question is unstarred question- This requires a written answer.
- The third type of Question is the Short Notice Question – This is the one that is asked by giving a notice of less than ten days and it is answered orally.
Now let us know about the impact of this decision to not hold the question hour?
Over the decades, MP’s have utilised this question hour to throw light on the government functioning. Suspension of the question hour is a straight indication that the opposition will lose the right to question the government. Plus, the Ministers are not liable to reply to the issues raised during the Zero Hour.
This would mean that the MPs would not be able to hold the government accountable for its action. This will lead against the spirit of parliamentary democracy.
Way forward –
The government is accountable to the parliament. The parliamentary proceedings are meant to hold the government accountable and it should not be suspended or curtailed as it will go against the essence of the Constitution.
