Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was on Monday forced to abruptly stop reading out the Hindi version of President A P J Abdul Kalam's address to a joint sitting of Parliament due to a cramp in his right leg.

When the 80-year-old Shekhawat neared the end of the nearly 75-minute address, a security personnel saw him in discomfort and helped him sit in a chair in the podium of Parliament's Central Hall.

As Union minister and physician C P Thakur, Parliamentary Affairs and Health Minister Sushma Swaraj and a Parliament doctor attended on Shekhawat, Kalam, who had read out his address in English first, brought the ceremony to a close saying the speech in Hindi should be taken as read.

But when the national anthem was played, the vice-president got up and stood through its complete duration, prompting the Members of Parliament to give a thunderous ovation.

The vice-president's personal physician R S Rathore did a check-up and found his pulse rate and blood pressure to be normal.

Later, Swaraj told reporters that the vice-president was "alright" and had gone home to take rest.

The incident prompted Swaraj to suggest that an all-party meeting be called to do away with the practice of the Hindi translation of the President's address being read out, and be replaced with simultaneous interpretation.