39. TABLE OFFICE 39.1. Main Responsibilities: 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 2019 were: — 1. Preparation of List of Business. 2. Preparation of List of Papers to be laid on the Table of the House. 3. Statements by Ministers. 4. Parliamentary Bulletin Part-I. 5. Co-ordination work relating to issue of Parliamentary Bulletin Part-II. 6. Provide assistance to Business Advisory Committee. 7. Preparation of daily Memorandum of Business for the Hon'ble Chairman, Hon'ble Deputy Chairman, Secretary-General and other Officers at the Table. 8. Preparation of a Statement showing names of Office-bearers of various Parties/ Groups. 9. Statement showing Party-position in the Rajya Sabha. 10. Preparation of Alphabetical List of Members of the Rajya Sabha. 11. Allocation of Division No./Seats to Members in the Chamber. 12. Oath/Affirmation by Members. 13. Divisions in the House. 14. Vacation of seats by resignation of Members, and filling up of casual vacancies. 15. Withdrawal of Members. 16. Obituary References. 17. References by the Chair on important national and international events. 18. Felicitations by the Chair. 19. Preparation, updation and uploading of “List of Members of Rajya Sabha” showing, inter alia, permanent and Delhi Addresses and Telephone Numbers etc. of the Members of Rajya Sabha as on 31st December, 2019 on the website of Rajya Sabha. 20. Issue of Membership Certificates to the ex-Members to facilitate availing of pension, CGHS facility, etc. 21. Biennial/Bye-elections to the Rajya Sabha. 22. Issue of congratulatory letters to the newly elected/re-elected Members. 23. Welcome to New Members and Good wishes to retiring Members. 24. Announcements/Rulings/Observations by the Chairman. 25. Nomination of Member(s) on the Panel of Vice-Chairmen, Rajya Sabha. 26. Preparation, uploading on the website, and issue of the publication entitled “Resume' of the Business transacted by the Rajya Sabha” during each of its Session. 27. Meetings of Hon’ble Chairman with Leaders of various Parties/Groups in Rajya Sabha. 28. Maintenance of Minutes Book of the Proceedings of the House. 29. Preparation of Duty Roster for the Officers at the Table at the commencement of each Session. 30. Maintenance of Roll of Members and Member’s Index Cards. 31. Maintenance of Register of Obituary References/References made in the House. 32. Maintenance of Register of Form-I, Form-III and Form-IV of Members, as per Rule 3, 4 and Rule 5 (1) of the Members of Rajya Sabha (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1985. 33. Maintenance/updation of Precedents Register and updation of the Precedents Management System on the Rajya Sabha Website. 34. Data feeding of Members'/ex-Members’ information in MIS Software. 35. Preparation of Statements showing the "Statistical Information" and "Highlights of the work - At a Glance" transacted during each Session. 36. Supply of information under the Right to Information Act, 2005. 37. Review and Weeding out of old files/records. 38. Updation of information concerning Members of Rajya Sabha through “Officers/Section Login” system. 39. Laying of Papers by Private Member/Minister. 40. Merger of Parties. 238 39.2. Sessions of the Rajya Sabha: There were three Sessions of the Rajya Sabha during the year 2019 i.e., 248th, 249th and 250th Sessions. Details regarding duration, etc. of these Sessions are as given below:— Session Date of Date of Total Duration of late Actual hours Commencement termination No. of sittings of sitting Sittings (excluding lunch break) Hrs. Mts. Hrs. Mts. 248th 31.01.19 13.02.19 10 00 — 00 03 –– 11 249th 20.06.19 07.08.19 35 27 –– 52 195 –– 34 250th 18.11.19 13.12.19 20 09 –– 52 107 — 05 39.3. Obituary References: 27 Obituary References [3 in 248th, 16 in 249th and 8 in 250th Session] in respect of sitting/ex-Members of Rajya Sabha and important national and international personalities were made in the House. The texts of the references were prepared and got approved. 39.4. References by the Chair: 9 References [5 in 249th and 4 in 250th Session] on different subjects were made in the House. The texts of the references were prepared and got approved. 39.5. Felicitations by the Chair: 10 Felicitations [1 in 248th, 6 in 249th and 3 in 250th Session] were offered by the Chair to the scientists, technicians and engineers of ISRO and sportspersons in various disciplines on their accomplishments in their respective field. During the 248th Session, the Hon'ble Chairman placed on record the appreciation for Shri Pranab Mukherjee and Late Shri Nana Deshmukh, former Members of this House for being chosen for the conferment of Bharat Ratna Award for their distinguished service in the field of Public Affairs and Social Work respectively; and Late Shri Kuldip Nayyar, a former nominated Member of this House, Shri Hukmdeo Narayan Yadav, a former Member of this House and a sitting Member of Lok Sabha and Sardar Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, a sitting Member of this House, for being chosen for the Padma Bhushan Award for their exemplary work in the field of Journalism and Public Affairs respectively. The texts of the Felicitations were prepared and got approved. 39.6. Retirement of Members: 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 3rd May, 2019 for information of Members. One Member (Shrimati Kanimozhi) who was due to retire on 24th July, 2019 got elected to the 17th Lok Sabha before the expiry of her term and accordingly ceased to be a Member of the Rajya Sabha w.e.f. 23rd May, 2019. The Chairman bid farewell to the retired and retiring Members, during the 249th Session. Leader of the House, Leader of the Opposition, Leaders of various political parties/groups and some other Members also spoke on the occasion. The texts of the Farewell Address by the Hon'ble Chairman were prepared and got approved. 39.7. 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 2019, 8 Members from the States of Assam and Tamil Nadu were elected to the Rajya Sabha. All these Members made and subscribed Oath/affirmation and entries relating to their elections were made in the Index Cards and Register. 39.8. Bye-elections to the Rajya Sabha: 14 Members namely, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan (Bihar), Dr. Amar Patnaik (Odisha), Dr. Sasmit Patra (Odisha), Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw (Odisha), Shri S. Jaishankar (Gujarat), Shri Jugalsinh Mathurji Lokhandwala (Gujarat), Dr. Manmohan Singh (Rajasthan), Shri Neeraj Shekhar (Uttar Pradesh), Shri Sanjay Seth (Uttar Pradesh), Shri Surendra Singh Nagar (Uttar Pradesh), Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi (Uttar Pradesh), Shri Satish Chandra Dubey 239 (Bihar), Shri K.C. Ramamurthy (Karnataka) and Shri Arun Singh (Uttar Pradesh) were elected to the Rajya Sabha in the Bye-elections held to fill the casual vacancies. These Members made and subscribed oath/affirmation and entries relating to their elections were made in the Index Cards and Register. 39.9. Congratulations to newly Elected/Re-elected Members: Congratulatory letters were issued to 22 newly elected/re-elected Members, on receipt of their declaration of results from the Returning Officers of the concerned State. 39.10. Oath Taking Ceremonies in the House/Chairman’s Chamber: During the year 2019, 22 newly elected/re-elected Members made and subscribed oath/affirmation. 16 Members made and subscribed oath/affirmation in the House (14 Members during the 249th Session and 2 Members during the 250th Session). 6 Members made and subscribed oath/affirmation in the Chairman’s Chamber (1 Member on 23rd of August, 2019, 1 Member on 12th of September, 2019, 2 Members on 19th of September, 2019, 1 Member on 22nd of October, 2019 and 1 Member on 7th of November, 2019). All arrangements in connection with the Oath taking ceremonies were made by the Section and the names of the Members who had made and subscribed oath/affirmation in the House and Chairman's Chamber were published in the Bulletin Part-I and Bulletin Part-II, respectively. 39.11. Vacation of Seats: 1. Resignation : Nine seats became vacant due to resignation by Members, namely, Shri Soumya R. Patnaik (Odisha), Shri Neeraj Shekhar (Uttar Pradesh), Dr. Sanjay Sinh (Assam) , Shri Surendra Singh Nagar (Uttar Pradesh), Shri Bhubaneswar Kalita (Assam) , Shri Sanjay Seth (Uttar Pradesh), Shri K.C. Ramamurthy (Karnataka), Dr. Tazeen Fatma (Uttar Pradesh) and Shri Ram Kumar Kashyap (Haryana). 2. Death: Three seats became vacant due to death of sitting Members, namely, Shri Madanlal Saini (Rajasthan), Shri Arun Jaitley (Uttar Pradesh) and Shri Ram Jethmalani (Bihar). 3. Election to Lok Sabha : Six seats became vacant due to election of Members to the 17th Lok Sabha, namely, Shri Amit Anil Chandra Shah (Gujarat), Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad (Bihar), Shrimati Kanimozhi (Tamil Nadu), Shrimati Smriti Zubin Irani (Gujarat), Shri Anubhav Mohanty (Odisha) and Shri Achyutananda Samanta (Odisha). 4. Seat Declared Vacant : In pursuance of the provisions of clause (2) of article 101 of the Constitution, read with Rule 2 of the Prohibition of Simultaneous Membership Rules,1950, the seat of Shri Pratap Keshari Deb, an elected Member of the Rajya Sabha from the State of Odisha was declared vacant w.e.f the 9th of June, 2019, consequent upon his not resigning from the Membership of the Rajya Sabha within the 14 days period of publication of declaration of his election to the Odisha Legislative Assembly in the Gazette of Odisha, i.e., the 25th of May, 2019.