Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has refused to intervene at this stage on the issue of summoning Finance Minister P Chidambaram as a witness before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the 2G scam.
After Meira’s communication to JPC chairman P C Chacko to this effect, the matter is now back in the panel’s court.
In her letter, Meira said Chacko “must first arrive at a decision” before approaching her. “The talk of my intervention in the matter at this stage is totally premature,” she is learnt to have said in the letter.
In his letter to Meira, Chacko had referred to the demand of JPC members from the Opposition parties that Chidambaram be summoned before the panel as a witness. He has already rejected the BJP demand to summon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The letter stated that although Rule 99 (1) of Parliamentary rules and procedures do not permit a committee to summon a minister, “there were two precedents of the Speaker having allowed it in the past”. “So her opinion was being sought,” the letter said.
Chacko also cited a rule under which the Speaker might issue such directions to a panel chairman from time to time as he or she considered it necessary for regulating procedures and organisation of work.
