In December 2023, the Lok Sabha witnessed something it had never seen before.
Over the course of a week during the Winter Session, 100 opposition MPs were suspended from the House after protests demanding a statement from the government on a major security breach inside Parliament.
The suspensions were ordered by Speaker Om Birla under Rule 374A of the Lok Sabha rules. It was the largest mass suspension in the history of India’s Parliament.
Rule 374A of the Lok Sabha Rules of Procedure enables the Speaker to automatically suspend an MP for "grave disorder" (such as: entering the well, shouting slogans, or disrupting business) for five consecutive sittings or the remainder of the session. This rule was introduced in 2001 to allow for immediate action without a motion.
But the 2023 incident was not a one-off moment of the Speaker invoking this rule.
A Quint investigation examining verified Lok Sabha suspension between 2004 and 2026 reveals a striking pattern: suspensions have increased dramatically over the past two decades, and have reached their highest levels during Birla’s speakership.
This investigation focuses only on Lok Sabha suspensions. Disciplinary actions in the Rajya Sabha are excluded because the two Houses follow different procedures and suspension rules.
The Data: Suspensions Have Surged
We found that between 2004 and 2026, 245 suspension actions were recorded in the Lok Sabha.
But the distribution across Speakers is stark.
While CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee's term from 2004-2009 saw only 5 verified and recorded suspensions, this number went up to 112 suspensions under Om Birla between 2019-2024 — an increase of more than 2000 percent.
Meira Kumar's tenure from 2009-2014 saw 45 suspensions, while Sumitra Mahajan's tenure (2014-2019) recorded 73 suspensions.
In other words, Birla presided over nearly half of all suspension actions recorded in the past two decades.
(Note: This analysis includes only Lok Sabha suspensions ordered by the Speaker under parliamentary rules. It does not include expulsions, such as the 2005 ‘cash-for-query’ scandal, where MPs were removed from Parliament following recommendations of a parliamentary committee and a vote of the House. Expulsion is a separate and far more severe disciplinary action that permanently terminates a member’s seat, whereas suspension temporarily bars an MP from attending the House for a specified period.)
A Parliament That Rarely Suspended MPs
In the mid-2000s, suspensions were rare and largely tied to ethical misconduct. Under Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who belonged to the CPI-M, just five MPs were suspended in five years.
Four of those suspensions came in 2006 after a parliamentary inquiry into alleged irregularities in the use of MPLADS funds. Another MP was suspended in 2007 following misconduct during an official parliamentary trip.
Under Congress' Meira Kumar, between 2012 and 2014, Parliament repeatedly witnessed disruptions over the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and the creation of Telangana.
MPs from the region repeatedly stormed the well of the House to protest the proposed division of the state.
The Speaker responded with multiple suspensions.
Most of those suspended were Congress MPs themselves, reflecting the internal turmoil within the ruling party over the Telangana decision.
Suspensions rose further during the tenure of BJP's Sumitra Mahajan from 2014-19.
Two episodes drove the numbers.
In August 2015, Mahajan suspended 25 Congress MPs during protests over the Lalit Modi controversy.
Then in January 2019, protests by AIADMK and TDP MPs demanding special category status for Andhra Pradesh triggered another wave of suspensions.
By the end of Mahajan’s term, 73 suspension actions had been recorded.
The Birla Surge
The sharpest escalation came after 2019.
During Birla’s first term as Speaker (2019–2024), 112 MPs were suspended from the Lok Sabha. This is the highest number recorded under any Speaker in the past two decades.
The surge was driven primarily by the Winter Session of 2023, when 100 MPs were suspended in a single week after protests over the Parliament security breach.
That one episode alone accounts for over 40 percent of all Lok Sabha suspensions recorded since 2004.
Birla returned as Speaker in 2024, and his second term has already seen eight MPs suspended during the 2026 Budget Session.
(Note: Where possible, the dataset relies on official Lok Sabha proceedings and parliamentary bulletins. For earlier years where records are less accessible, reporting from major national outlets has been used for verification.)
Who Was Suspended?
The party-wise data also reflects shifting political dynamics inside Parliament.
Under Meira Kumar, suspensions were dominated by Congress MPs, largely due to internal protests over Telangana. Under Sumitra Mahajan, the biggest share of suspensions came from AIADMK MPs, followed by Congress and TDP.
Under Birla, the suspensions cut across a much wider swathe of MPs coming only from the Opposition including Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Left parties and several smaller regional parties. JD(U) MPs were also suspended when the party was part of the Opposition alliance.
The Rule That Enables Mass Suspensions
Most suspensions rely on Rule 374A of the Lok Sabha rules, introduced in 2001. The rule allows the Speaker to automatically suspend MPs who enter the well of the House or disrupt proceedings.
Originally designed to restore order, the rule has increasingly been used in large-scale suspensions affecting dozens of MPs simultaneously.
Earlier Speakers tended to suspend individual MPs or small groups.
Recent suspensions have often removed entire opposition blocs from the House at once.
A Changing Parliament
The rise in suspensions reflects a deeper shift in parliamentary politics.
Opposition parties increasingly rely on protests inside the House to force debates on controversial issues. The government, meanwhile, is increasingly determined to push legislation through even amid protests.
In that environment, the Speaker’s disciplinary powers have become a central instrument in managing confrontation in Parliament.
And under Speaker Om Birla, who is set to face a no-confidence motion on the floor of the House on 9 March, the scale of those suspensions has reached levels never seen before.