When the house reassembled in the afternoon after three adjournments, the seven MPs belonging to the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) continued shouting slogans against the women's reservation bill, even as Chairman Hamid Ansari called on leader of opposition Arun Jaitley (BJP) to speak.

As nothing could be heard in the din, Ansari, egged on by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), called on the marshals to evict the seven MPs.

As close to 50 marshals attempted to do so, the expelled members violently resisted and the marshals eventually had to physically carry them out.

Amid all the chaos, Ansari put the bill to vote, a move vociferously protested by the BJP that wanted a debate.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was present in the house through all this.

Order was eventually restored after about half-an-hour and Jaitley was allowed to speak. He whole heartedly supported what he termed "one of the most progressive pieces of legislation that has been brought".

Earlier, furious at the continuous disruptions over the women's reservation bill, Ansari suspended the seven opposition MPs for the remaining part of the session.

PM apologises

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apologised to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari for the "disrespect shown to you" by MPs opposed to the women's reservation bill.

"I owe you a profound apology for the disrespect shown to you. These things should never have happened. They have happened, and we have to reflect how to we have to streamline our functioning in future so that these things don't take place," he said in the upper house.