Opinion March 23, 1976, Forty Years Ago

No Leave For Swamy

The Rajya Sabha refused to grant leave of absence to Subramanian Swamy, a Jana Sangh MP. In a letter dated March 1, Swamy said as he was still on his tour abroad and as he would not be able to return during the expected length of the session, he was requesting the Rajya Sabha chairman to grant him leave of absence from the session of the house. The chairman, B.D. Jatti, read out the letter in the house and asked whether it would grant Swamy leave of absence. Some members said “Yes” and some others said “No”. Jatti then took “the sense of the house” and said the sense of the house was that leave should not be granted. Therefore, permission to remain absent was not granted. Under Article 104 of the Constitution, if an MP is absent from all meetings of his house for 60 days without the permission of the house, the house may declare his seat vacant. In the history of the Lok Sabha, there was one such case. In 1956, the Lok Sabha declared a seat vacant after the member, Sibnarayan Singh Mahapatro, remained absent for 152 days. His application for leave of absence, on grounds of ill-health and domestic trouble, was rejected by
the Lok Sabha Committee on Absence of Members.

West Asia Talks

In a historic evolution of the West Asia problem, the UN Security Council seated the Palestine Liberation rganisation (PLO) as well as Israel at the Council table to participate in the debate on the developments in Israel occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank of Jordan.