Things You Must Know About the Question Hour and Zero Hour

Question hour and zero-hours both are two essential practices of the Indian Parliament that operate on the basic functionality of learning about a specific question. The learning “About Question Hour” can be defined as the time period when the “member of the parliaments” (MP) can put up their queries or ask questions based on their needs. In context to this, the government is supposed to answer the question or queries of the “member of parliaments”. In regard to zero-hour, it can be described as the time period from the initiation of the question asking to the time frame of resolving the query of the MPs. 

About Question Hour

The two concepts of zero-hour and Question hour are the innovation and implementation of the Indian Parliament, where there is specific conduction of inquiry. The concept “About Question Hour” is the former hour of the “first sitting” at the Indian Lok Sabha. During this hour the “members of the parliament” are allowed to question and interrogate any question that relates to the Indian administrative activity. In this particular circumstance, the present minister is bound to reply or answer the MPs and the parliament based on their query. 

There is special importance and functionality in the parliament of India in the context of parliamentary proceedings. It is the fundamental right of the “members of parliament”, “About Question Hour” to unfettered and inherently questions the government. It can also be said “About Question Hour” which is the mechanism through which the government can hold executives accountable for any situation related to the question. Knowing “About Question Hour” and its type is crucial before making a question to the parliament. These can be categorised into four basic parts 

• Non-starred
• Questions on short notice 
• Starred 
• Questioning the private members. 

“Significance of Question Hour and Zero Hour”

There are different “Significance of Question Hour” and Zero Hour”. Question Hour is the period when it evaluates and deals with the investigation of the “member of parliament” on the queries of the governmental administrative functioning or activities. However, there is a point of difference between the two “Question Hour” and the “zero-hours”. The former is the first proceeding that takes place in the parliament whereas the latter, is the session that is conducted after the conduction of the questioning sessions of the Parliament body. The utmost importance of the question is that the MPs might have several doubts or confusion that requires answering in order to proceed with the state or regional matters. There are limitations of the zero-hours that range from 25 mins to 30 mins maximum. The initiation of the zero-hours begins at 12: 00 at noon. In regards to the significance of the two hours innovation of the Lok Sabha each member of the parliament gets a time of maximum 3 minutes to question and speak about the related topic of the query. 

“Recent Procedural Changes”

Along with the approval of the commissioner of India, there are different “Recent Procedural Changes” that are required to be made. This happened by the 1999 commission court of India where the update of the laws and rules of India was proposed to be evaluated and revised to incorporate modernization in the rule book of India. It applies to all the fields of the Indian governmental body. However, there are other perspectives to the commissioner’s statement that suggest taking part in processing should be permissible along with witnessing the witness or the party by video at least. 

Conclusion

The idea of zero and question hour are the creative and innovativeness of the Indian government in mitigating the issues of the people through the discussion of the MPs. Recently the government has decided on suspending the facilities for two hours. The reason that is stated to stop this functionality is because of the global pandemic. However, there has been a change in the timing of the Question hour from 11-12 pm. It is followed by the parliamentary rules of India. The final and the highest authority for answering the question are the presiding officers of two parliamentary houses.