Motions in Parliament of India

Motions in Parliament of India

• Discussion on a matter of public importance need a motion in Parliament of India.
• It can be made with the consent of the presiding officer.
• The House expresses its decisions through the adoption or rejection of motions.
• Motions can be moved by ministers or private members.

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Substantive Motion

• It is a self-contained independent proposal.
• It can be used for impeachment of the President or removal of Chief Election Commissioner or so on.

Motions in Parliament of India

Substitute Motion

• It is a motion that is moved in substitution of an original motion.
• If substitute motion is adopted by the House, it supersedes the original motion.

Subsidiary Motion

• It cannot state the decision of the House without reference to the original motion
• Subsidiary motion has 3 subcategories
  • Ancillary Motion – It is used as the regular way of proceeding with various kinds of business.
  • Superseding Motion – It is moved in the course of debate on another issue and seeks to supersede that issue.
  • Amendment – It seeks to modify or substitute only a part of the original motion.

Closure Motion

• Closure motion moved by a member to cut short the debate.
• If it is approved by the House, debate is stopped and the matter is put to vote.
• There are 4 kinds of closure motions

Simple Closure

• Member moves simple closure when the matter has been sufficiently discussed, to put to vote.

Closure by Compartments

• Clauses of a bill or a lengthy resolution are grouped into parts.
• The debate covers the part as a whole and the entire part is put to vote.

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Kangaroo Closure

• Only important clauses are taken up for debate and voting.
• Other intervening clauses are skipped.

Guillotine Closure

• Undiscussed clauses of a bill or a resolution are also put to vote along with the discussed ones.
• It can be done as the time allotted for the discussion is over

Privilege Motion 

• A member can move it against other member for a breach of privilege of the House.
• Privilege motion is punishable under law of Parliament.
• Speaker/RS chairperson is the first level of scrutiny of a privilege motion.
• Speaker nominates a committee of privileges.
• It consists of 15 members of Lok Sabha and prepare a report .
• In Rajya Sabha, the deputy chairperson heads the committee of privileges
• It consists of 10 members of Rajya Sabha.

Calling Attention Motion

• It can move by a member to call the attention of a minister to a matter of urgent public importance
• This motion seek an authoritative statement from a minister.
• It is an Indian innovation in the parliamentary procedure.
• Calling attention motion was introduced in 1954.

motions in parliament of india

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Adjournment Motion

• It is introduced in the Parliament to draw attention of urgent public importance.
• It needs the support of 50 members to be admitted.
• As it interrupts the normal business of the House, it is regarded as an extraordinary device.
• It involves an element of censure against the government
• Rajya Sabha is not permitted to make use of this device.
• The discussion on an adjournment motion should last for not less than two hours and thirty minutes.
• It should not cover more than one matter
• It should be restricted to a specific matter of recent occurrence
• Adjournment motion should not raise a question of privilege
• It should not revive discussion on a matter that has been discussed in the same session
• This motion should not deal with any matter that is under adjudication by court
• It should not raise any question that can be raised on a distinct motion

Censure Motion

• It can be brought against the ruling government or against any minister for the failure to act of their policy.
• It can be moved only in Lok Sabha only by the opposition.
• A censure motion must specify the charges against the government
• If a censure motion is passed in the Lok Sabha, the Council of ministers is bound to seek the confidence of the Lok Sabha as early as possible.

No Confidence Motion

• If it is passed in the Lok Sabha, the council of ministers must resign from office
• It’s against all the council of ministers or government
• The motion needs the support of 50 members to be admitted.
• No prior reason needs to be stated for its adoption in the Lok Sabha
• Rajya Sabha can’t move no-confidence motion against the Government
• There is no mention of a no-confidence motion in the constitution
• Rule 198 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, empowers members of lok sabha to doing so.
• During the third Lok Sabha in 1963, first one was moved by Acharya J B Kripalani against the government headed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
• First successful no-confidence motion was moved by Y B Chavan in 1979 against the government of Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

motions in parliament of india

Motion of Thanks

• The 1st session after each general election and the 1st session of every fiscal year is addressed by the president.
• In this address, the president outlines the policies and programmes of the government
• It called ‘Motion of Thanks’.
• At the end of the discussion, the motion is put to vote.
• This motion must be passed in the House. Otherwise, it amounts to the defeat of the government.

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No-Day-Yet-Named Motion

• It is a motion that has been admitted by the Speaker but no date has been fixed for its discussion.
• The Speaker, after consultation with the leader of the House or on the recommendation of the Business Advisory Committee, allots days or part of a day for the discussion

motions in parliament of india

Resolutions

• The members can move resolutions to draw the attention of the House or the govt. to matters of public interest.
• A member who has moved a resolution cannot withdraw it except by leave of the House.
• All resolutions come in the category of substantive motions, that is to say, every resolution is a particular type of motion.
• All motions are not necessarily put to vote but all the resolutions are required to be voted
• Resolutions are classified into three categories:

Private Member’s Resolution

• It is one that is moved by a private member
• It is discussed only on alternate Fridays and in the afternoon sitting.

Government Resolution

• It is one that is moved by a minister.
• It can be taken up any day from Monday to Thursday.

motions in parliament of india

Statutory Resolution

• It can be moved by any member
• It is always tabled in pursuance of a provision in the Constitution or an Act of Parliament.

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