Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday announced in the House that he had revoked suspension of 11 Opposition members to enable them to attend President Droupadi Murmu’s address to a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament at the start of the Budget Session of Parliament.

He said he had received on Tuesday the 76th report of the Committee of Privileges of the Rajya Sabha on the suspended members’ conduct. The Committee was referred the suspension of the members punished for their unruly conduct in the Winter Session of Parliament.

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During a brief sitting of the House after the President’s Address, the Chairman said the Privileges Committee of the House had held the MPs guilty of breach of privilege and contempt of the Council of States, but recommended that the period of suspension already suffered by the members be treated as sufficient punishment for the transgression.

The 11 suspended members were Mrs J Mather Hisham, Dr L Hanumanthaiah, Mr Neeraj Dangi, Mr Rajmani Patel, Mr Kumar Ketkar, Mr G C Chandrashekhar (all from the Congress Party), Mr Binoy Viswam and Mr Sandosh Kumar P from the CPI, Mr M Mohamed Abdullah (DMK); and Mr John Brittas and Mr A A Rahim of the (CPI-M).

The Chairman said the report was to be presented to the House. However, taking note of the situation that the suspended members would not be able to attend the special address of President Droupadi Murmu to both Houses of Parliament assembled together for the first time in the new Parliament House, the committee presented the report to him for a decision on its recommendation.

Mr Dhankhar said he took inputs from the Leader of the House Piyush Goyal and the Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, and having considered the whole situation, he invoked authority vested him under Rules 202 and 266 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States to revoke the suspension of the 11 members to enable them to attend the President’s Special Address. The report was also being presented to the House, he said.

The Chairman said he had to take a difficult decision as the House wanted the members suspended till it had the benefit of consideration of the report of the Committee of Privileges. He said he received wise counsel from the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition and keeping that in view, he took the decision to revoke the suspensions and hoped the House would appreciate the sentiments.

Dr Anil Jain (BJP) thereafter presented the 76th Report (in English and Hindi) of the Committee of Privileges on matter of breach of privilege against the 11 Members for shouting slogans and displaying placards, thereby disrupting proceedings of the House, in gross violation of the Rules of the House and utter disregard to the authority of the Chair.