Chandigarh, Mar 24 (PTI) Noisy scenes were witnessed in the Punjab Assembly on Monday with the Congress MLAs staging a walk out of the House twice after party MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira was allegedly denied an opportunity to speak in the House.

Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan and Khaira sparred after the latter was not given an opportunity to raise his issues while the former asserted that it was the discretion of the chair whom to be allowed to speak.

Also Read | Sent Money to Wrong UPI ID? Here's How You Can Complaint on npci.org.in and Recover It.

During the Zero Hour of the budget session, Bholath MLA Khaira sought Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan's attention to allow him to raise issues in the House.

Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa also stood up in support of Khaira, urging the Speaker to allow him to speak.

Also Read | Ramadan 2025 Calendar: Sehri Time, Iftar Time for 24th Roza of Ramzan on March 25 in Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Other Cities of India.

"I urge you. He (Khaira) has been waiting to raise some important issues. Kindly allow him to speak," Bajwa asked the Speaker.

After Khaira kept demanding the Speaker to allow him to speak, Sandhwan told the MLA that it was his prerogative who is to be given an opportunity to speak in the House.

"Nobody can force the chair. It is the chair to see who is to speak," Sandhwan told Khaira and asked MLA Rana Inderpartap Singh to speak.

Thereafter, Khaira sat down. A few minutes later, he again rose from his seat and demanded from the Speaker to allow him to raise farmer related issues.

The Speaker, however, allowed MLA Sandeep Jakhar to raise his issues.

When Khaira expressed his displeasure over not being allowed to speak, Sandhwan told him, "You are preventing an honourable member from putting forth issues of the people of Punjab."

"Is it only you (Khaira) who can raise issues of Punjab. Please sit down. Can you intimidate the chair," he asked Khaira.

Later, the Congress MLAs went to the well of the House before staging a walk out.

However, Congress MLAs Rana Gurjeet Singh and Hardev Singh Laadi kept sitting for some time but later walked out.

Later in the day, during the discussion on the Governor's address, Bajwa again requested the Speaker to allow Khaira to take part in the debate after Congress MLA Pargat Singh shared his views.

The Speaker told Bajwa that he had already given more than the allotted time to the Congress MLAs.

"This is the discretion of the chair. I try to be as fair as possible. I gave you more than the allotted time," said Sandhwan and took MLA Rana Inderpartap's name for taking part in the debate.

After being denied the opportunity to speak for the third time, Khaira got agitated and went to the well of the House. The other Congress MLAs also joined him.

As he was expressing his displeasure to the Speaker in the well of the House, Congress MLA Avtar Henry took him to come out of the House as other party legislators were staging the walk out.

The treasury benches strongly opposed the conduct of Khaira in the House. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema asked the Congress MLAs to come back.

"Have some shame. You used unparliamentary language here. Speaker saab take action," Cheema urged the Speaker.

Later in a statement, Khaira accused Sandhwan of "harboring a personal grudge" against him, alleging that the Speaker has "systematically banned him from participating in legislative proceedings for over a year".

Khaira alleged that the Speaker's "partisan and dictatorial conduct has rendered the Vidhan Sabha'?a critical democratic platform'?defunct and farcical".

"For the past year, I have been prevented from raising pressing issues concerning my constituents and the people of Punjab," Khaira claimed.

He said he was denied the opportunity to speak during Zero Hour despite persistently raising his hand ten times.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)