India's envoy to the United States Ronen Sen, who made the controversial 'headless chickens' remark to describe those opposing the India-United States nuclear deal, has been summoned by the Privileges Committee of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

A decision to summon him before the Privileges Committee of the Rajya Sabha was taken at a meeting on Monday, presided by deputy chairman K Rahman Khan, Committee sources said adding that the decision was unanimous.

Besides Khan, the meeting was attended by Ravi Shankar Prasad, S S Ahluwalia, Shantaram Naik and R K Dhawan.

Lok Sabha Committee sources said that a decision to summon the envoy has already been taken. The next meeting of the Rajya Sabha Privileges Committee is scheduled on November 2 while the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee is expected to meet on October 29 and 30.

The sources, however, said that no date has been fixed for the appearance of Sen before the Committees and it will be decided by mutual consultations.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had referred the issue to the Committee after Sen conveyed an unqualified apology for his remarks to the External Affairs Ministry. The ministry had pleaded that in view of the apology tendered by Sen, the matter be closed.

In view of the strong feelings of the MPs on the issue, the Speaker had referred it to the Privileges Committees. The Lok Sabha Committee is headed by Congress MP V Kishorechandra Deo.

At the height of the controversy over the opposition to the nuclear deal from the Left Front and the Opposition, Sen had used the word 'headless chickens' to describe those opposing the deal. However, he later explained that he was referring to mediapersons in his comment, not MPs.

Both the Houses had witnessed uproarious scenes for a couple of days amid demands that Sen be summoned to the bar of the House. The Opposition had demanded that Sen be immediately recalled.