What is Question hour and Zero Hour?
Q. Which of the following is/are true regarding Question Hour and Zero Hour?
1) Zero hour is not mentioned in the Rules of Procedure.
2) Unstarred questions can have supplementary questions.- Published on 03 Mar 17a. Only 1
b. Only 2
c. Both 1 and 2
d. All of the above
ANSWER: Only 1
Question Hour -
- The first hour of every parliamentary sitting is kept for this.
- During this time, the members ask questions and the ministers usually give answers.
- The questions are of three kinds, namely, starred, unstarred and short notice.
- A starred question (distinguished by an asterisk) requires an oral answer and hence supplementary questions can follow.
- An unstarred question, on the other hand, requires a written answer and hence, supplementary questions cannot follow.
- A short notice question is one that is asked by giving a notice of less than ten days.
- It is answered orally.
Zero Hour -
- Unlike the question hour, the zero hour is not mentioned in the Rules of Procedure.
- Thus it is an informal device available to the members of the Parliament to raise matters without any prior notice.
- The zero hour starts immediately after the question hour and lasts until the agenda for the day (ie, regular business of the House) is taken up.
- In other words, the time gap between the question hour and the agenda is known as zero hour.
- It is an Indian innovation in the field of parliamentary procedures and has been in existence since 1962.
