Rajya Sabha on Friday witnessed noisy scenes during the Zero Hour after Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar rejected notices by ruling party members to suspend listed business of the House to discuss an issue related to corruption in Karnataka, but allowed a BJP member to raise the matter.

Treasury members were on their feet to protest rejection of the notices under Rule 267 of procedure and conduct of business of Rajya Sabha, while Opposition, mainly Congress MPs objected to Chair’s permission to BJP’s Iranna Kadadi to raise the issue of corruption in Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation (KMVSTDC) as part of his Zero Hour mention. Kadadi, Brij Lal, Naresh Bansal and Sudhanshu Trivedi of BJP had given the notices.

Dhankhar had to repeatedly ask the protesting members from both sides to accept his ruling and bring order in the House.

Soon after the House paid homage to martyrs of Kargil War and laying of listed papers, the Chairman said while there were no notices under Rule 267 during the past two days, he has received four from MPs belonging to the ruling party demanding discussion on the issue of corruption in KMVSTDC by suspending the scheduled business.

“All of them (notices) belonged to the ruling party. These notices ignore my directives which were explicit. There may be issues of great importance, many have been raised under 267 earlier (by Opposition), I declined all of them. No issue which is otherwise of great urgency and contemporary relevance call for invocation of Rule 267.

This invocation notwithstanding your feelings on the issue does not come up to the requirement of Rule 267,” he said while rejecting the notices. However, he said Kadadi has been permitted to raise the matter as part of his Zero Hour mention.