Patna, Aug. 16: Bihar is the only state where the legislative Assembly boasts of a rule to deal with confidence motion moved by the government of the day.

Till early this year no such rule was in place in the procedure and conduct of business rulebook framed in 1952. "It was during the Assembly's budget session in February-March that the House approved this rule," Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary told The Telegraph on Wednesday.

Before this rule, mentioned in rule 109 (A) of the rules of procedure, the trust motion used to be moved under a method suggested by the Speaker, who used all-encompassing powers under rule 41.

Under the new rule, the government of the day can move a confidence motion in two circumstances - if the governor asks the government to prove its majority on the Assembly floor or if the government of the day decides to move such a motion on its own.

The Nitish Kumar government, with BJP and other NDA constituents as allies, was the first to move a confidence motion in the Assembly, on July 28, to prove its majority in the lower House.

"While going through the Assembly rulebook, I found no rule to deal with a confidence motion while there was an elaborate one to deal with a no-confidence motion," Speaker Choudhary said. "I held discussions with Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and parliamentary experts like Subhash C. Kashyap and G.C. Malhotra before framing the rules and getting it approved by the Assembly."

The Lok Sabha and legislature Houses in other states do not have such rules. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bengal and Rajasthan governors and the Arunachal Pradesh Speaker sent letters praising Speaker Choudhary's efforts.

Choudhary also amended three rules dealing with inclusion of legislative Council members in committees dealing with financial matters. Earlier, MLCs used to be included in committees, but the rulebook was silent on if they could be. "I introduced 44 changes in the rules of procedure and conduct of business and got them approved by the House," Choudhary said. Most of these changes were amended under existing rules.