Friday, February 21, 2014

Division of House

In parliamentary procedure, a division of the assembly (also division of the house or simply division) is a voting method in which the members of the assembly take a rising vote (stand up) or go to different parts of the chamber, literally dividing into groups indicating a vote in favour of or in opposition to a motion on the floor.

It is one of the forms in which the decision of the House is ascertained. Normally, when a motion is put to the House members for and against it indicate their opinion by saying "Aye" or "No" from their seats. The Chair goes by the voices and declares that the motion is either accepted or negatived by the House. If a member challenges the decision, the Chair orders that the lobbies be cleared. Then the division bell is rung and an entire network of bells installed in the various parts and rooms in Parliament House and Parliament House Annexe rings continuously for three and a half minutes. Members and Ministers rush to the Chamber from all sides. After the bell stops, all the doors to the Chamber are closed and nobody can enter or leave the Chamber till the division is over. Then the Chair puts the question for second time and declares whether in its opinion the "Ayes" or the "Noes", have it. If the opinion so declared is again challenged, the Chair asks the votes to be recorded by operating the Automatic Vote Recording Equipment. 

This was the method used to decide motions in the Roman Senate (and was occasionally used in democratic Athens).

Divisions

There are three methods of holding a Division:

(i) by operating the Automatic Vote Recorder,
(ii) by distributing ‘Ayes’ and ‘Noes’ slips in the House, and
(iii) by members going into the Lobbies.

However, the method of recording of votes in Lobbies has become obsolete ever since the installation of Automatic Vote Recording machine. This procedure has not been used for the last two decades.

A few days after the constitution of new Lok Sabha, seats in the House which are the same as the Division numbers are allotted to all members. It is imperative that members besides speaking from the seats allotted to them also record votes therefrom at a Division, which reflects the correct position in respect of the voting results arrived at.

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