President summons joint sitting of Parliament

new delhi: a day after the defeat of the anti-terrorism bill in rajya sabha, the president on friday summoned a rare joint sitting of both houses of parliament on march 26. on that day, the government plans to get the controversial anti-terrorism bill passed on the basis of a majority it lacked in the upper house. shortly after the bill was defeated in the rajya sabha last night, parliamentary affairs minister pramod mahajan wrote to the president conveying government's decision to request him to convene the joint session. president k r narayanan sent a communication to parliament that he was exercising powers conferred under clause (i) of article 108 of the constitution to "summon the rajya sabha and lok sabha to meet in a joint sitting for the purpose of deliberating and voting on the said bill." the joint sitting, being held after a gap of 24 years, will be the third such ocassion in the annals of indian parliament after 1961 and 1978. while the government lost the bill in rajya sabha by a margin of 15 votes, it expects the legislation to be through in a joint sitting because of its huge margin in lok sabha, where it was passed by a margin of over 100 votes. upset over the last-minute ditching by national conference, mahajan swung into action today to tie up with the allies to avoid any disaster on tuesday. he talked to allies like the tdp in a bid to ensure that there was no repeat of last minute u-turns. the session, to be held in the central hall of parliament to be presided over by deputy speaker p m sayeed will be telecast live. under the procedures worked out for the one-day joint sitting, home minister l k advani will move the bill for consideration and passing which will be followed by a debate. law minister arun jaitley will intervene in the debate on the bill while advani will reply to it before the voting. prominent leaders of major parties will make their presentation before voting is taken up. the whole affair is not expected to prolong because of the civil investiture ceremony scheduled at the rashtrapati bhawan in the evening. the prevention of terrorism ordinance, which the bill seeks to replace, will lapse on april 8, if parliament fails to legislate it.