Members have a right to ask questions to elicit information on matters of public importance from the Government. It is the most popular device available to a member to raise issues in the House. Rule 29 of the Delhi Assembly Rules states that a question must relate to a matter of administration for which the Government is responsible. Its purpose should be to elicit information or to give suggestion of action on a matter of public importance.
Questions can be classified as follows :
- Starred Questions
- Unstarred Questions
- Short Notice Questions
- Questions to private members.
Starred Questions : A starred question is one to which a member desires an oral answer in the House and the Minister replies on the floor of the House. Supplementary questions are also allowed with the permission of the Speaker.
Unstarred Questions : An unstarred question means a question to which a written reply may be given to the member concerned and on which no supplementary question is permissible. Replies to unstarred questions are deemed to have been laid on the Table of the House by the Minister.
Admissibility of Questions : The Speaker decides the admissibility of a question and he can disallow any question or a part thereof, which in his opinion contravenes the Rules. He can also amend a question or edit it with a view to bring it into conformity or return it to the member for improvement. Rule 31 of the Rules of Procedure lays down the following conditions for admissibility of questions:
- It shall not bring in any name or statement not strictly necessary to make the question intelligible.
- If it contains a statement by the member, the member asking it shall himself be responsible for the accuracy of the statement.
- It shall not be excessively lengthy.
- It shall not contain arguments, inferences, ironical or offensive expressions, imputations, epithets or defamatory statements.
- It shall not be asked for an expression of opinion or for the solution of a legal question, or a hypothetical proposition.
- It shall not refer to the character or conduct of any person except in his official or public capacity, nor relate to individual cases, unless a matter of principle is involved
- It shall not repeat in the same session in substance questions already answered or to which an answer has been refused
- It shall not ask for information which is available in accessible documents or in ordinary works of reference.
- It shall not ask for information on a matter which is under adjudication by a Court of Law having jurisdiction in any part of Indi
- It shall not refer to the conduct of any judge or a Court of Law having jurisdiction in any part of India in relation to his or its judicial functions
- It shall not make or imply a charge of a personal character.
- It shall not ask for information on matters of limited importance or on vague or meaningless matters, nor information of too many details.
- It shall not relate to day-to-day administration of local bodies or other semi-autonomous bodies. The Speaker may, however, allow questions which arise out of their relationship with the Government or relate to breaches of law or rules or to important matters of public interest.
- It shall not refer to debates in the current session.
- It shall not criticize decisions of the House.
- It shall not seek information about matters, which in their nature are secret, such as, decision on Proceedings of the Council of Ministers, advice given to the Lieutenant Governor by Law Officers and other similar subjects.
- It shall not deal with a matter before a Committee or with matters within the jurisdiction of the Chairman of a Committee or the authorities of the House.
- It shall not deal with a matter which is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Speaker.
- It shall not relate to a statement made by a private individual or a non-official body.
- It shall not reflect on the character or conduct of those persons whose conduct may only be challenged on a substantive motion.
- It shall not raise questions of policy too large to be dealt with in the limits of an answer to a question.
- It shall primarily relate to one department.
- In matters which are, or have been, the subject of correspondence between the Central Government and the Government, no question shall be asked except as to matters of fact and the answer shall be confined to a statement of facts.
- It shall not enquire about matters pending before any statutory tribunal or statutory authority performing any judicial or quasi-judicial functions or any Commission or Court of Inquiry appointed to enquire into or investigate any matters, but may refer to matters concerned with procedure or scope of stage of inquiry, if it is not likely to prejudice the consideration of the matter by the Tribunal, statutory authority, Commission or Court of Enquiry.
Notice of Starred and Unstarred Questions :
- Not less than twelve clear days notice is to be given in writing to the Assembly Secretary. (‘Clear days’ include Saturdays, Sundays and holidays but do not include the date of receipt of a notice by the Secretariat). The notice should be in the prescribed form available in the Notice Branch. Besides the text of the question the notice should state the designation of the Minister to whom the question is addressed, as also the date on which the question is to be listed. If the member is giving more than one notice he should indicate his priority failing which they are listed as per the times of receipt.
- The name of the members is to be written in block letters at the top of the notices of questions. Similarly the member’s division number should also be indicated. Every notice has to be individually signed by the member.
- The relative precedence of the notice of question for oral answers given by members is determined by ballot on the last date of receipt of the notice at 5.00 PM. Along with the summons for a session, members are sent a Bulletin which contains the details regarding the allotment of days for different departments, the day for answering questions and the last date for receipt of notices.
Limitation on number of Questions :
A member can give notice for a maximum of five questions for a sitting including short notice questions, starred questions and unstarred questions. In the event of the member giving notice for more questions they are deemed to have been disallowed, if no future date for the concerned department is available. Twenty starred questions and two hundred unstarred questions are listed for a given day.
Short Notice Question :
- A member may give a notice of question on a matter of public importance an of urgent character for oral answer at a notice less than twelve days prescribed as the minimum period of notice for asking a question in ordinary question. Such a question is known as ‘short notice question’. Supplementary questions rising out of the answer given can be asked with the permission of the Speaker.
- A member has to give three clear days notice for short notice question. If the Speaker is satisfied with the admissibility of the question it is sent to the Minister concerned requesting him to inform whether he is in position to answer the question at a short notice. If the Minister agrees it is placed immediately on the List of Business. Not more than two short notice questions are listed for a day.
- If the Minister concerned is not in a position to answer it at short notice and the Speaker is of the opinion that it is of sufficient public importance, he may direct that it may be given priority on the list of questions for a future day and answered as a starred question. Not more than three such questions can be listed for a day and not more than one question of a member shall be placed in the list of business.
Questions to Private Members : A question can also be addressed to a private member provided the subject matter of the question relates to some Bill, Resolution or other matter connected with the business of the House for which the member is responsible. The procedures in such cases are similar to a question addressed to the Ministers subject to such changes as the Speaker desires.