New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee Wednesday set up an 11-member committee headed by V. Kishore Chandra S. Deo of the Congress to probe cases of misconduct of members of the house including misuse of parliamentary privileges and facilities.
The move comes after Babubhai Katara, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Gujarat was caught at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here April 18 while attempting to smuggle out to Canada a woman and a boy on the passports of his wife and son.
One of Katara’s aides later told police that four more MPs were involved in the racket.
The committee has been asked to submit its report within a month of the reference being made to it by the speaker.
“The official notification is expected in a day or two and we would start functioning at the earliest. The misuse of parliamentary privileges by members is a serious matter and there is need to examine it in detail,” Deo told IANS soon after his appointment.
Chatterjee set up the committee after a meeting May 15 with leaders of all political parties.
The speaker had April 26 asked Katara not to attend the sittings of the house till the matter against him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Passport Act had been deliberated upon by the leaders and a decision taken on it.
Announcing the setting up of the committee, the speaker said he would decide whether member or members concerned in each case will be asked not to attend the house till a suitable decision is taken after the report is submitted.
The other members of the committee include Gurudas Dasgupta (Communist Party of India), Anant Gangaram Geete (Shiv Sena), C. Kuppusami (DMK), V.K. Malhotra (BJP) and Mohammed Salim (Communist Party of India-Marxist).