KATHMANDU, Jan 25: Speaker Onsari Gharti had to adjourn the Parliament meeting on Monday without completing the scheduled business due to lack of quorum required to endorse any proposal in a House sitting.
The House, which was scheduled to endorse the proposal to ratify the amendment protocol on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), was adjourned in absence of the adequate number of lawmakers.
No sooner the speaker called Minister for Commerce Deepak Bohara to table the proposal for endorsment at the meeting, Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker Ramhari Khatiwada stood from his seat and demanded a head count of the member of parliament present there.
Only 142 lawmakers were present at the meeting whereas the presence of at least 149 members is compulsory at the time of endorsement of any bill or proposal or taking any formal decision in the legislature.
Officials at the secretariat said that the lawmakers didn't attend the meeting even though 353 lawmakers had arrived at the parliament hall and signed on the attendance register.
The present parliamentary regulation require presence of one fourth of the total active members of the House mandatory while taking any formal decisions.
The speaker ordered to ring the House bell continuously for three minutes as a signal to the lawmakers roaming around outside the parliament hall.
After that a group of lawmakers into the Hall but the the number was still short of the required quorum.
Then, the speaker announced the deferral of the scheduled business for the next day.
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House meeting adjourned due to lack of quorum
