Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu wants the procedure to raise complaints against members to be eased after it emerged that action could not be taken against 19 members in the past four years because the complaints did not comply with the procedure.
He has asked the Committee on Ethics, chaired by BJP MP Prabhat Jha, to re-examine the rules. A review conducted by this committee last week revealed that 22 complaints against 19 members in the past four years had to be returned without examination since they did not comply with the procedure.
The complaints against 19 members — belonging to eight parties, the ruling as well as the Opposition, besides two Independents — were not taken up for a preliminary examination by the committee as they were not addressed to the authorities as prescribed in the rules.
The Rajya Sabha Secretariat has refused to divulge the names of the 19 members.
Since 1997, only two members have been expelled on the recommendations of the committee: one for taking money to raise questions and the other for misuse of funds under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme.
Vijay Mallya resigned from the Rajya Sabha even before the committee’s recommendations were considered.
