Protests from the Left and the BJP members led the chairman of the Joint Committee on the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill to give an assurance that it would try to present the joint committee’s report on the bill in the House as soon as possible, after initially seeking permission to present the report in the next session.

The committee’s chairman, V Kishore Chandra S Deo’s, motion for extending the time for presenting the report drew objections from both the BJP and the Left members. BJP’s Vijay Kumar Malhotra said that the report was already delayed and if there were issues holding up the report, it could be presented in the second phase of the current session of Parliament. CPM’s Basudeb Acharia and CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta, too, protested the motion on the extension.

At this point, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee intervened to say that there would be time constraints in the second phase of the Budget session and requested the members to consider the motion.