Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Flags Rule 267 Notices Misuse

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Harivansh cites rising trend of multiple adjournment motion notices on varied issues, says practice undermines orderly functioning of the House

By TRH Political Desk

NEW DELHI, August 8, 2025 — Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh on Friday expressed concern over what he described as the growing misuse of Rule 267 notices. He stated that they were increasingly being deployed as a “tool to create disorder” in the Upper House.

Addressing members during the proceedings, Harivansh said he had received 20 notices under Rule 267 for the day — the parliamentary provision that allows members to seek suspension of the House’s listed business to discuss urgent issues. He pointed to a “pattern” in recent sessions where multiple and varied issues were raised simultaneously through such notices.

“On 21st July, six different issues were highlighted, whereas from 22nd to 24th July, four different issues were submitted each day,” Harivansh noted. He further stated that “the number of issues in notices on subsequent days in July and early August ranged from four to seven. On August 5, 6 and 7, the House received notices covering seven, twelve and eleven different subjects respectively. Today’s 67 notices contain five different issues.”

The Deputy Chairman observed that some members were submitting Rule 267 notices “daily on varying issues,” suggesting a lack of consensus even within parties on the urgency of subjects raised.

Recalling a precedent set by then Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu in July 2021, Harivansh said that Naidu had rejected 17 such notices from 10 different parties on grounds that “there is no single view on the urgency of the issues” and that “nobody can dictate the chair.”

Harivansh also clarified that there was an established practice of not disclosing the names or subjects of Rule 267 notices in the House. “During the chairmanship of Hamid Ansari, the disposing of 267 notices was not even announced in the House,” he said, adding that the notices received today had been declined in line with that tradition.

The remarks came amid frequent disruptions in the Monsoon Session, with the Opposition repeatedly invoking Rule 267 to press for debates on issues ranging from economic policy to allegations against ministers.

Remarks of Harivansh came amid continuous disruption in parliament in the ongoing Monsoon session. The Opposition is agitated over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.

The Congress has also upped the ante against the government and the Election Commission over alleged voters’ fraud. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday held a press conference to allege voters’ malpractices in Mahadevpura Assembly constituency in Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 general elections.

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