Section 93
Procedure of Select Committee
of State Legislative Assembly Standing Orders
(1)
Unless otherwise provided in other Standing Orders, this Standing Order and the following Standing Orders shall apply to all Select Committee including sessional
Select Committee.
(2)
A Select Committee shall have power to send for persons, papers and records, and shall have leave to report its opinion and observations, together with the minutes of evidence taken before it to the Assembly.
(3)
Unless the Assembly otherwise directs, three Members (besides the Chairman), or if the number of the Select Committee does not exceed four, two Members
(besides the Chairman) shall be the quorum. If at any time, a quorum shall not be present, the proceedings of the Committee shall be present, the proceedings of the Committee shall be suspended until a quorum be present, or the Committee shall stand adjourned.
(4)
Strangers may with the general assent of Members present be admitted to a
Select Committee except when the Committee is deliberating. Admission shall be subject to such rules as the Speaker may make from time to time.
(5)
The deliberations of a Select Committee shall be confined to the matter referred to it by the Assembly and any extension or limitation thereof made by the
Assembly.
(6)
The first meeting of a Select Committee shall be at such time and place as the
Chairman in the case of a Sessional Select Committee, or the Speaker in the case of any other Select Committee, shall appoint. Such subsequent meetings shall be held at such time and place as the Committee may determine:-
Provided that:-
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(a)
if the Committee fails to do so the Chairman shall, in consultation with the
Clerk of the Assembly, appoint such time and place; and
(b)
no Select Committee shall meet outside the Assembly building unless power so to do has been specifically given to that Committee by the
Assembly.
(7)
Except by leave of the Assembly no Select Committee shall sit while the
Assembly is sitting. Should a Select Committee be unable to sit by reason of the
Assembly sitting at a time appointed for a meeting of the Select Committee, the
Chairman of the Select Committee shall, in consultation with the Clerk, appoint some other time and place for such meeting.
(8)
A Select Committee may continue its investigations although the Assembly may be adjourned.
(9)
The Clerk of the Assembly or his deputy appointed by him shall be the Clerk to every Select Committee.
(10)
When it is intended to examine any witnesses, the Member of the Assembly or in the case of a Private or hybrid Bill, the petitioner requiring such witnesses shall deliver to the Clerk, in sufficient time to enable such witnesses to be summoned, a list containing their names, residences, and occupations. The Clerk shall then summon such witnesses on behalf of the Assembly, in accordance with the provisions of the law*. A witness who does not reside within five miles of the
Assembly building shall be paid or have tendered to him the sum of RM25 per day for his expenses and in addition shall be reimbursed the cost of transport reasonably incurred by him.
(11)
A copy of the minutes of the evidence of every witness shall be sent to him. If the witness does not, in writing addressed to the Clerk seek to make any change in the minutes of evidence within seventy-two hours from the time when the copy of the minutes was despatched, the minutes shall be printed without correction.
Any dispute as to the correctness of the minutes of evidence and any request for
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any material change in the minutes of evidence shall be referred to the Chairman who shall rule thereon and shall direct that the minutes be printed in accordance with his ruling which shall not be called in question.
(12)
The Committee may at its discretion refuse to hear any irrelevant evidence or any recalcitrant witness and may reject any irrelevant representation.
(13)
(a)
Any Member of a Select Committee may bring up a report for its consideration, and all such reports shall be entered in full upon the minutes of the Committee. When all the reports have been brought up, the Chairman shall propose the reports in turn until one is accepted as basis for discussion, beginning with his own report and proceeding with the remainder in the order in which they were brought up. The question to be proposed by the Chairman on any report shall be “That the
Chairman’s (or Mr. ………………………’s) report be read a second time paragraph by paragraph”. When this question has been agreed to, it shall not be proposed on any further reports, but any portions thereof may be offered as amendments to the report under consideration if they are relevant on it.
(b)
The Committee shall then proceed to go through (1) to (11) paragraph by paragraph and the provisions of the paragraphs (1) to (11) of Standing
Order No. 71 (Procedure in Committee of the whole Assembly on a Bill)
other than the provision requiring two clear days’ notice of amendments shall apply to such consideration as if the report were a Bill and the paragraphs thereof the clauses of the Bill.
(c)
Upon the conclusion of the consideration of the report paragraph by paragraph and when all proposed new paragraphs have been considered the Chairman shall put the question “That this report be the report of the
Committee to the Assembly”.
(14)
In a Select Committee on a Bill, the Chairman shall have all the powers of a
Chairman of a Committee of the whole Assembly on a Bill.
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