Speaker to give ruling this week

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said on Tuesday that he will give his ruling this week on the breach of privilege notice against the author and the daily Pioneer, containing critical references against him.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Devendra Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal said the issue should be referred to the privileges committee since a deliberate attempt had been made to denigrate the image of the House.

Chatterjee said since the issue came up, he had got many suggestions. "I have many critics and many admirers," he quipped.

I never said speaker is above criticism: Somnath

The matter was also raised in the House last week with Left parties and RJD members expressing concern over targeting of the Chair.

However, Bharatiya Janata Party deputy leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra had said that there was nothing objectionable as even the Supreme Court comes under comment in write-ups and there was freedom of press in the country.

The National Democratic Alliance decided on Tuesday to oppose any privilege motion against the writer and editor of the newspaper for carrying the article.