The Pheu Thai Party is threatening to get the Constitutional Court involved after several cabinet ministers failed to show up to a parliamentary inquiry, claiming they had a more important function to attend.
The move followed an incident last Thursday when most ministers including Deputy Prime Minister Jurin Laksanawisit chose to attend a special cabinet meeting that was called one day after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha returned from an overseas trip.
In doing so, they skipped a parliamentary session held for opposition parties to ask them questions.
Cholnan Srikaew, a Pheu Thai MP for Nan, interpreted the ministers' absence from the House meeting as a deliberate ploy to avoid answering questions.
He threatened on Wednesday to call a quorum count if any ministers fail to show up in future, saying it is the responsibility of government MPs to ensure a quorum, or else the meeting would be adjourned.
Section 60 of the constitution only allows for ministers and other concerned parties to skip a parliamentary meeting and defer answering inquiries from the opposition if they are permitted to do so by a formal cabinet resolution.
Nirote Sunthornlekha, a Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) MP for Nakhon Sawan, said in his capacity as chief government whip that the ministers did not intend to dodge last week's session.
An urgent cabinet meeting was convened on Thursday after Gen Prayut returned from his trip abroad, Mr Nirote said.
While stressing that it is chiefly the government's responsibility to ensure a quorum at parliamentary meetings, National Assembly President Chuan Leekpai pointed out that the government has outperformed its predecessors in terms of responding to parliamentary inquiries.
As for what transpired last Thursday, Mr Chuan said he had lodged a complaint via Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam saying such an incident should not happen because the parliamentary session was scheduled long in advance.
The government should have planned its schedule accordingly to avoid any conflicting dates, he added.