Question Hour and Zero Hour in Parliament

        

For the proper functioning of democratic country, inclusion of Question Hour and Zero Hour is a boon. It exposes the functioning of government to public domain. They are the key avenues that hold the government to account. Moreover with the broadcasting of Question Hour since 1991, it has become one of the most visible aspects of Parliamentary functioning. 

        

The first one hour of a sitting session of the House proceedings is devoted to questions that member of Parliament raise about any aspects of governance. The concerned minister is obliged to answer to Parliament, either orally or in writing depending on the type of question raised. It is the liveliest hour in Parliament. It is during this one hour  that members of Parliament ask questions of ministers and hold them accountable for the functioning of their ministries. The Question Hour in Rajya Sabha does not coincide with that in Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha holds from  11 AM to 12 NOON whereas Rajya Sabha hold from 12 NOON to 1 PM.

        

WHAT KIND OF QUESTIONS ARE ASKED

The presiding officers of the two Houses are the final authority with respect to the conduct of Question Hour. The Parliament has comprehensive rules for dealing with every aspects of Question Hour. According to Parliamentary rules that provide guidelines on the kind of questions that can be asked by the Members of Parliament. 

1.    Question have to be limited to 150 words.

2.    They have to be precise and not too general. 

3.    The question should be related to an area of responsibility of the Government of India.

4.    Questions should not seek information about matters that are secret or are under adjudication before Courts.

It is the presiding officers of the two Houses who finally decide whether a question raised by an MP will be admitted for answering by the government.

ZERO HOUR

Zero Hour is a unique creation of the Indian Parliament and, further is accepted as a convention as it does not exist in Parliamentary rule book.

LS Secretariat says that the period immediately following the Question Hour has come to be popularly known as Zero Hour. He says that since it starts around 12 noon, this period is euphemistically termed as 'Zero Hour'

WHAT MATTERS ARE RAISED?

It is the discretion of the speaker to allow or not to allow the raising matters in the Lok Sabha especially given that it is not formally recognised part of the parliamentary procedure and exists only by way of convention. In Lok Sabha for raising matters during Zero Hour members have to give notice between 8:30 AM to 9 AM on that day to the Speaker stating clearly the subject which they consider to be important and wish to raise in the House. 

The LS Secretariat says that '20 matters per day as per their priority in the ballot are allowed to be raised during Zero Hour with the order to be decided by the Speaker.

    The Rajya Sabha produced rules state that Zero Hour submission should not exceed beyond 30 minutes and that the total number of submissions should not exceed seven per day. The Zero Hour submission should be completed before the House adjourns for lunch at 1 PM

        The Handbook for Members of Rajya Sabha says that since May 1999, permission for Zero Hour submissions in the Upper House is very rare, because whatever is said in the Zero Hour goes almost  unnoticed and there is no mechanism available to ensure government's response to the matters raised. Thus it is now only under very exceptional circumstances or extreme urgency that the chairman grants permission for raising a matter of urgent public importance by way of Zero Hour submission.

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CAN QUESTION HOUR BE SUSPENDED?

As per the Parliamentary procedure Question Hour is significant hour and cannot be suspended. Although by the previous history under the  exceptional situation, Question Hour was suspended.

        Since Independence only two occasions are reported where question hour was done away with. First occasion was during the Chinese aggression in 1962. The Question Hour was done away after consensus between the ruling and opposition parties.

        The second and the recent was because of Covid-19 pandemic. According to the experts, the doing away with Question Hour just because of Covid-19 was illogical.

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