Parliament Meeting Postponed Until Wednesday Following Death of Speaker’s Mother-in-Law
Dragon Media Correspondent
The House of Representatives meeting scheduled for 1:00 pm on Tuesday has been postponed until 1:00 pm Wednesday following the death of Speaker Dol Prasad Aryal’s mother-in-law.
Federal Parliament Secretary General Padma Prasad Pandey issued a notice on Tuesday morning stating that the date and time of the meeting had been changed due to “special circumstances.” According to the Parliament Secretariat, the special circumstance cited in the notice was the death of Speaker Aryal’s mother-in-law, Shivakumari KC.
KC, 90, died on Tuesday morning. She had recently been receiving treatment at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj and was taken home last Saturday, according to the Speaker’s secretariat.
Following her death, Speaker Aryal instructed the Parliament Secretariat to postpone Tuesday’s House meeting and reschedule it for 1:00 pm Wednesday.
Rule 6 of the House of Representatives Rules 2083 provides that the Speaker shall announce the commencement and adjournment of each sitting. The rules also allow the Deputy Speaker to commence and adjourn a sitting if the Speaker gives written authorization or is unable to attend due to circumstances beyond his control.
Under this provision, Speaker Aryal could have authorized Deputy Speaker Ruby Kumari in writing to preside over Tuesday’s sitting instead of postponing it. However, the meeting was rescheduled for Wednesday without assigning her responsibility for conducting the sitting.
Deputy Speaker Ruby Kumari has said that she learned about the postponement only later. Parliament Secretariat officials, however, have said that she has recently been given opportunities to practice presiding over House proceedings and that her experience and confidence have been gradually increasing.
There have also been previous instances in which deputy speakers and vice-chairpersons have presided over parliamentary sittings, from commencement to adjournment, after receiving written authorization when the Speaker or National Assembly chairperson was absent.
Tuesday’s postponement has therefore also raised questions about how the constitutional and parliamentary role of the Deputy Speaker should be exercised when the Speaker is unavailable.
