'Zero Hour' in the working of the Indian Parliament means

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, the time immediately following the Question Hour. 'Zero Hour' is the informal device by which Members of Parliament raise matters of urgent public importance without any prior notice. It begins the moment the Question Hour ends and continues until the House takes up the listed business (the Order/List of Business). In the Lok Sabha the Question Hour runs from 11 a.m. to 12 noon, so Zero Hour conventionally starts at 12 noon — the clock striking twelve/'zero' is the origin of the name. It is an Indian parliamentary innovation of the early 1960s and is NOT mentioned in the Rules of Procedure, so the Presiding Officer is under no obligation to permit it.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Wrong — the first hour of a sitting is the Question Hour (usually 11 a.m.–12 noon), during which ministers answer questions. Zero Hour comes after that, not at the start.  (b) Wrong — this describes a breach-of-privilege motion, a separate procedural device for punishing a contempt or breach of parliamentary privilege. It has nothing to do with the time-based Zero Hour.  (c) Wrong — Zero Hour comes AFTER, not before, the Question Hour. In fact nothing precedes the Question Hour, which itself opens the day's sitting.

Concept: A daily sitting of Parliament runs to a set order: the Question Hour comes first (in the Lok Sabha, 11 a.m.–12 noon), immediately followed by 'Zero Hour', after which the House takes up the listed business. Zero Hour is an informal Indian device — not written into the Constitution or the Rules of Procedure — that emerged around 1962. It lets members raise urgent issues instantly, bypassing the advance-notice requirement that ordinary questions carry.

State PCS 2021 Q56 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2021 Q56 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer