37. TABLE OFFICE 37.1. Main Responsibilities: The Table Office is primarily concerned with the day-to-day business of the House. The main subjects dealt with in the Section during the year 2010 were: — i) Preparation of List of Business. ii) Laying of Papers on the Table of the House. iii) Statements by Ministers. iv) Parliamentary Bulletin Part-I v) Co-ordination work relating to issue of Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II. vi) Business Advisory Committee. vii) Preparation of daily Memorandum of Business for the Hon'ble Chairman, Hon'ble Deputy Chairman, Secretary-General and other Officers at the Table. viii) Preparation of a Statement showing names of Office-bearers of various Parties/ Groups. ix) Statement showing Party-position in the Rajya Sabha. x) Preparation of Alphabetical List of Members of the Rajya Sabha. xi) Allocation of seats to Members in the Chamber. xii) Oath/Affirmation by Members. xiii) Divisions in the House. xiv) Roll of Members. xv) Resignation by Members, vacation of seats and filling up of casual vacancies. xvi) Obituary references. xvii) References by the Chair on important national and international events. xviii) Preparation and issue of the publication entitled “List of Members of Rajya Sabha” showing, inter alia, permanent and Delhi Addresses and Telephone Numbers of the Members of Rajya Sabha. xix) Issue of Membership Certificate to the ex-Members to enable them to avail pension, CGHS facility, etc. xx) Biennial/Bye-elections/Nominations to the Rajya Sabha. xxi) Issue of congratulatory letters to the newly elected/nominated Members. xxii) Good wishes to retiring Members. xxiii) Announcements by the Chairman. xxiv) Reconstitution of Panel of Vice-Chairmen, Rajya Sabha. xxv) Suspension of Members. xxvi) Expulsion of a Member. xxvii) Joining of a Nominated Member to a Political Party. xxviii) Merger of two Parties in Rajya Sabha. xxix) Preparation of Note on Procedures on various topics. xxx) Preparation of Statement showing time lost due to interruptions during the Session xxxi) Preparation and issue of the publication entitled “Resume' of the Business transacted by the Rajya Sabha” after each of its Session. xxxii) Customary dinner by Hon’ble Chairman at the commencement of a Session. xxxiii) Maintenance of Minutes Book of the Proceedings of the House. xxxiv) Maintenance of the Register of Roll of Members and Member’s Index Cards. xxxv) Maintenance of the Register of Obituary References/References made in the House. xxxvi) Maintenance of Register of Form-III and Form-IV of Members, as per Rule 4 and Rule 5 (1) of the Members of Rajya Sabha (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1985. xxxvii) Maintenance/updation of Precedents Register and updation of the Precedents Management System on the Rajya Sabha Website. xxxviii) Data feeding of Members/ex-Members’ information in MIS Software. xxxix) Preparation of Statements showing the "Statistical Information" and "Highlights of the work - At a Glance" transacted during each Session. xl) Cases dealt with under the Right to Information Act, 2005. 224 xli) Compilation and preparation of the pamphlet entitled “Rajya Sabha-A Fact Sheet”. xlii) Updation of information related to Table Office on the Rajya Sabha Website. xliii) Updation and compilation of the publication entitled “General Information for Members of Rajya Sabha”. xliv) Preparation of the Sectional Manual of Office Procedure of the Council Branch. 37.2. Sessions of the Rajya Sabha: There were three Sessions of the Rajya Sabha during the year 2010 i.e., 219th, 220th and 221st Session. Details regarding duration, etc. of these are given below:— Session Date of Date of Total No. of days with late Actual hours of Commencement termination No. of sittings sitting (excluding Sittings lunch break) Hrs. Mts. Days Hrs. Mts. 219th 22.02.2010 07.05.2010 32 21 31 — 57 129 — 47 220th 26.07.2010 31.08.2010 26 17 30 — 02 119 — 38 221st 09.11.2010 13.12.2010 23 — — 2 — 47 37.3. Obituary References: 21 Obituary References (11 in 219th and 5 each in 220th and 221st Session) in respect of the sitting/ex-Members of Rajya Sabha and important national/international personalities were prepared and got approved from the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, during the year before the same were made in the House. 37.4. References by the Chairman: 15 References (3 in 219th and 6 each in 220th and 221st Session) on different subjects were prepared and got approved from the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, before the same were made in the House. 37.5. Retirement of Members: In accordance with the provisions of clause (1) of article 83 of the Constitution, 71 Members (1 nominated and 70 elected Members) of the Rajya Sabha retired on the completion of their term of office during the year 2010. A Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II showing the names of Members of Rajya Sabha retiring on the expiration of their term of office during the year was issued on the 3rd February, 2010 for information of Members. 37.6. Biennial Elections to the Rajya Sabha: The Notifications issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice (Legislative Department) in connection with the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha and programme of elections received from the Election Commission of India were reproduced in Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II for information of Members. In the biennial elections held during the year 2010, 70 Members from 19 different States were elected/re-elected to the Rajya Sabha. Of these 70 Members, only 1 Member namely Shri Oscar Fernandes (Karnataka) took oath/affirmation in the Chairman’s Chamber in the month of July, 2010 while other Members made and subscribed oath/affirmation in the Rajya Sabha Chamber. 36.7. Bye-elections and Nominations to the Rajya Sabha: 5 Members namely, Prof. Anil Kumar Sahani (Bihar), Shri Pravin Naik (Gujarat), Shri Narendra Budania (Rajasthan), Shri Naresh Chandra Agrawal and Shri Pramod Kureel (Uttar Pradesh) were got elected to the Rajya Sabha in the bye-elections held to fill the casual vacancies, which occurred during the year. The President, in accordance with the provisions of clause (1) of article 80 of the Constitution, nominated 5 Members namely, Dr. Ram Dayal Munda, Dr. Bhalchandra Mungekar, Shrimati B. Jayashree, Shri Javed Akhtar and Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar to the Rajya Sabha on the 22nd March, 2010. Out of these, two Members, namely, Dr. Ram Dayal Munda and Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar had indicated that they are affiliated to the Indian National Congress Party at time of their nomination to the Rajya Sabha. All these Elected/Nominated Members made and subscribed 225 oath/affirmation in the Rajya Sabha Chamber and entries relating to Elections/Nominations of these Members were made in the Register. 37.8. Congratulations to newly elected/Nominated Members: Congratulatory letters were issued to all newly elected Members, after receiving their declaration of results from the Returning Officers concerned. Nominated Members were also congratulated after receiving Notification from the Ministries of Home Affairs and Law and Justice. 37.9. Vacation of Seats: i. Death: Five seats became vacant due to the demise of Members, namely, Shri Janeshwar Mishra and Shri Virendra Bhatia (Uttar Pradesh), Shri Krishan Lal Balmiki (Rajasthan), Shri Arjun Kumar Sen Gupta (West Bengal) and Shri M. Rajasekara Murthy (Karnataka). Entries relating thereto were made in the register. A copy each of the Notification was also sent to the Election Commission of India for necessary action. ii. Resignation: Three seats became vacant due to resignation by Members, namely, Shri Hemant Soren (Jharkhand), Shri Shivraj Vishwanath Patil (Maharashtra) and Shri Narendra Budania (Rajasthan). The necessary entries relating to their resignations were made in the register. A copy each of the Notifications were also sent to the Election Commission of India for necessary action. 37.10. Panel of Vice-Chairmen: The Chairman, Rajya Sabha nominated/re-nominated the following Members on the Panel of Vice-Chairmen on the 3rd August, 2010:- (i) Prof. P. J. Kurien (ii) Shrimati Jayanthi Natarajan (iii) Shri Kalraj Mishra (iv) Shri Prasanta Chatterjee (v) Dr. Mahendra Prasad (vi) Shri Tariq Anwar The announcements regarding nomination/re-nomination of the Members on the Panel of Vice-Chairmen were made by the Chairman in the Rajya Sabha on the 5th and 6th August, 2010. 37.11. Suspension of Members : On a motion moved by Shri Prithviraj Chavan, the then Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and adopted by the House on the 9th March, 2010, the following Members of Rajya Sabha were suspended from the service of the House for the remaining part of the 219th Session, for disregarding the authority of the Chair by persistently and willfully obstructing the proceedings in the House on the issue of Women Reservation Bill :— (i) Shri Kamal Akhtar (SP); (ii) Shri Veer Pal Singh Yadav (-do-); (iii) Dr. Ejaz Ali [JD(U)]; (iv) Shri Sabir Ali (LJP); (v) Shri Subhash Prasad Yadav (RJD); (vi) Shri Amir Alam Khan (SP); and (vii) Shri Nand Kishore Yadav (-do-) A circular was issued to all concerned regarding the suspension of Members. The suspension of six Members excluding Dr. Ejaz Ali was terminated on the Motions moved and adopted by the Rajya Sabha on the 15th March, 23rd and 28th April, 2010. 37.12. Expulsion of a Member : Following a communication received from Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, National President of the Samajwadi Party in February, 2010 expelling Shri Amar Singh, Member belonging to that party in Rajya Sabha from the Membership of the Party for violating the party norms and anti-party activities, Shri Amar Singh was shown as ‘Member without Party Affiliation’ in Rajya Sabha for the limited purpose of functioning in the House and also for purposes of records.