parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense or t ...

, a point of order occurs when someone draws attention to a rules violation in a meeting of a

deliberative assembly A deliberative assembly is a meeting of members who use parliamentary procedure. Etymology In a speech to the electorate at Bristol in 1774, Edmund Burke described the British Parliament as a "deliberative assembly," and the expression became the ...

Explanation and uses

In ''

Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised ''Robert's Rules of Order'', often simply referred to as ''Robert's Rules'', is a manual of parliamentary procedure by U.S. Army officer Henry Martyn Robert. "The object of Rules of Order is to assist an assembly to accomplish the work for whic ...

'' (RONR), a point of order may be raised if the rules appear to have been broken. This may interrupt a speaker during debate, or anything else if the breach of the rules warrants it. The point is resolved before business continues. The point of order calls upon the chair to make a ruling. The chair may rule on the point of order or submit it to the judgment of the assembly. If the chair accepts the point of order, it is said to be ruled "well taken". If not, it is said to be ruled "not well taken". Generally, a point of order must be raised at the time the rules are broken or else it would be too late. For example, if a

motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and mea ...

was made and discussion began on it, it would be too late to raise a point of order that the motion was not

seconded In deliberative bodies a second to a proposed motion is an indication that there is at least one person besides the mover that is interested in seeing the motion come before the meeting. It does not necessarily indicate that the seconder favors th ...

. If such a motion was adopted without a second, it remains valid and not having a second becomes irrelevant. Exceptions to the rule that a point of order must be raised at the time of violation include that a point of order may be raised at any time a motion was adopted in violation of the

bylaws A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...

or applicable law, in conflict with a previously adopted motion (unless adopted by the vote to

rescind In contract law, rescission is an Equity (law), equitable legal remedy, remedy which allows a contractual party to cancel the contract. Parties may rescind if they are the victims of a vitiating factor, such as misrepresentation, Mistake (contrac ...

it), or in violation of a fundamental principle of parliamentary law. The ruling of the chair may be

appealed In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

to the assembly in most cases. A majority vote against the chair's ruling is required to overturn it. A point of order is sometimes erroneously used to present a request for information or a

parliamentary inquiry In parliamentary procedure, requests and inquiries are motions used by members of a deliberative assembly to obtain information or to do or have something done that requires permission of the assembly. Except for a request to be excused from a duty ...

. If a member asks such a question, the chair should treat the question as the appropriate request.

Legislative use

Australia

Deriving from British practice, in the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

it continues to be customary for a member raising a point of order while the House is voting to hold a sheet of paper over the top of their head.

India

In the Indian Parliament, both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, a point of order can raised in relation to the business before the House by any member of the parliament. The decision of the Chair is final and no debate is allowed on the point of order, though the Chair may hear members before giving the decision.

Ireland

In the Irish

Oireachtas The Oireachtas (, ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of: *The President of Ireland *The bicameralism, two houses of the Oireachtas ...

(parliament), a point of order can be used in relation to order in the assembly. However, the ruling of the chair in this assembly cannot be appealed.

United Kingdom

Until 1998 in the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

, it was required that a member raising a point of order while the House is

voting Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...

be wearing a hat so they could be easily seen. Two

opera hat An opera hat also called a chapeau claque or gibus is a top hat variant that is collapsible through a spring system, originally intended for less spacious venues, such as the theatre and opera house. Typically made of black satin, it folds verti ...

s were maintained in the House for this purpose. This practice was abolished in accordance with the findings of the

Select Committee on the Modernisation of the House of Commons The Select Committee on the Modernisation of the House of Commons (frequently shortened to Modernisation of the House of Commons Committee) was a temporary select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was c ...

United States

In the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

, the chair's ruling on a point of order may be appealed by any Senator. Points of order with regard to the Budget Act or annual budget resolution may be waived by of the Senate's entire membership. Rule XVI, which prohibits normal legislation in appropriations legislation, may be waived by of the Senate. The

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

also allows points of order and appeals, although they are very rare following the abolishment of open rules in 2016, as they are routinely waived by the United States House Committee on Rules.

References

{{Parliamentary procedure Incidental motions