Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday rejected Opposition-sponsored adjournment motions on Volcker Committee report, Mitrokhin Archives and former United States envoy Daniel Patrick Moynihan's book on alleged payoffs to Congress and its leaders.

He ruled that these did not relate to the Union government, nor were they matters of recent occurrence.

The notices given by Bharatiya Janata Party deputy leader V K Malhotra, National Democratic Alliance convenor George Fernandes [Images] and five others 'do not refer to one specific issue and there does not appear to be any direct responsibility of the government in the matter', Chatterjee said, in his ruling.

The House was rocked for the second consecutive day over the Volcker issue, with the Opposition unrelenting on its
demand for the resignation of United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi [Images] and Union Minister Natwar Singh.

"The notices relate to more than one matter, are not very definite and do not justify adjourning all other business in the House for immediate discussion. Further, they do not relate to a matter for which the Union government is responsible, over and above not being matters of recent occurrence, under the rules, notices are not eligible for admission by the Chair," Chatterjee observed.

The notices for the motion were also moved by Braja Kishore Tripathy (BJD), S S Dhindsa (Akali Dal), Anant Geete (Shiv Sena), K Yerrannaidu (Telugu Desam Party) and Yogi Adityanath (BJP).

It was on 'alleged involvement of Congress party and its leaders for compromising the interests of the country for monetary gains as revealed by Mitrokhin Archives, the Volcker Committee report and Moynihan's book and need for an investigation by the CBI'.

The Speaker said he had already admitted a notice of a motion under Rule 184 by Malhotra and his BJP colleague Santosh Gangwar, which entailed voting on the Volcker findings. Although such discussions, even under Rule 184, were precluded because the matter was pending enquiry, Chatterjee said he had admitted it by exercising his discretion.

Quoting the rules of procedure and conduct of business, Chatterjee said it clearly laid down conditions of admissibility of a notice of adjournment motion. It was provided that such a notice should be restricted to a specific matter of recent occurence involving government's responsibility.

The rules also make it clear that any motion, which seeks to raise a matter before any statutory tribunal or authority or any commission or court of inquiry would not be ordinarily permitted to be moved, the Speaker said.

He noted that the government had set up a single-member Inquiry Authority, headed by Justice R S Pathak, former Chief Justice of India, to investigate the findings contained in the Volcker report.