NEW DELHI Uproar over the Tehelka arms bribery scandal stalled proceedings in India's Parliament again on Tuesday as the opposition Congress Party stuck to its demand for a probe into the scandal.

The first question time after a three-week recess proceeded fairly smoothly in the Lower House, which had been paralyzed for eight days last month due to slanging matches over the issue.

But the mood soon soured, with Congress deputies calling for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) enquiry into secretly filmed video which showed a web of public figures apparently accepting cash from journalists posing as arms dealers.

"Our minimum demand is a JPC and, two, to initiate investigations against the guilty," Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia said, cited by Reuters.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan retorted that Congress was applying "very strange logic", and said there could only be an enquiry after a debate in Parliament.

Congress lawmakers then swarmed onto the floor of the Lower House shouting "We Want JPC!", forcing the speaker to adjourn proceedings.

Similar scenes in the Upper House forced an adjournment there for the whole day.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's coalition government has ordered a judicial probe into the revelations made by the Internet news website www.tehelka.com, which forced Defense Minister George Fernandes and two party chiefs to quit.

The government, which has a reasonably comfortable majority in the lower, has also said that it is prepared to face a parliamentary debate over the allegations.

But it insists that Congress must let Parliament function.