Role Of Speaker In Indian Polity

WHY IN NEWS?

• The Kolkata High Court in its recent order held that the Speaker must take a decision on the disqualification of a member under anti-defection law within 3 months.

PRESIDING OFFICERS OF PARLIAMENT

• Each House of Parliament has its own presiding officer. There is a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker for the Lok Sabha and a Chairman and a Deputy Chairman for the Rajya Sabha.
• A panel of chairpersons for the Lok Sabha and a panel of vice-chairpersons for the Rajya Sabha is also appointed

SPEAKER OF LOK SABHA

• Election:
  • The Speaker is elected by the Lok Sabha from amongst its members (as soon as may be, after its first sitting).
  • Whenever the office of the Speaker falls vacant, the Lok Sabha elects another member to fill the vacancy.
  • The date of election of the Speaker is fixed by the President.
• Tenure:
  • Usually, the Speaker remains in office during the life of the Lok Sabha.
  • However, he has to vacate his office earlier in any of the following three cases:
    • If he ceases to be a member of the Lok Sabha
    • If he resigns by writing to the Deputy Speaker
    • If he is removed by a resolution passed by a majority of all the members of the Lok Sabha. Such a resolution can be moved only after giving 14 days’ advance notice.
  • When a resolution for the removal of the Speaker is under consideration of the House, he cannot preside at the sitting of the House, though he may be present.
  • However, he can speak and take part in the proceedings of the House at such a time and vote in the first instance, though not in the case of an equality of votes.
  • It should be noted here that, whenever the Lok Sabha is dissolved, the Speaker does not vacate his office and continues till the newly-elected Lok Sabha meets.
• Role, Powers and Functions:
  • The Speaker is the head of Lok Sabha and the guardian of powers and privileges of the members, the House as a whole and its committees.
  • He is the principal spokesman of the House and his decision in all Parliamentary matters is final.
  • Within the House, he is the final interpreter of the provisions of the Constitution, the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of Lok Sabha, and the parliamentary precedents.
  • He maintains order and decorum in the House, decides the agenda, adjourns or suspends the house, presides over joint sittings and allows secret sittings.
  • He decides whether a bill is a money bill or not.
  • He decides the questions of disqualification of a member of the Lok Sabha, arising on the ground of defection
  • He appoints the chairman of all the parliamentary committees of the Lok Sabha. He himself is the chairman of the Business Advisory Committee, Rules Committee and General Purpose Committee.
• Independence and Impartiality:
  • Security of tenure:
    • He is provided with a security of tenure. He can be removed only by a resolution passed by the Lok Sabha by an absolute majority (ie, a majority of the total members of the House) and not by an ordinary majority (ie, a majority of the members present and voting in the House).
    • This motion of removal can be considered and discussed only when it has the support of at least 50 members.
  • Salaries and allowances are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India:
    • His salaries and allowances are fixed by Parliament. They are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India and thus are not subject to the annual vote of Parliament
  • His work and conduct cannot be discussed and criticised in the Lok Sabha except on a substantive motion.
  • His powers of regulating procedure or conducting business or maintaining order in the House are not subject to the jurisdiction of any Court.
  • He cannot vote in the first instance. He can only exercise a casting vote in the event of a tie. This makes the position of Speaker impartial.
  • He is given a very high position in the order of precedence. He is placed at seventh rank, along with the Chief Justice of India. This means, he has a higher rank than all cabinet ministers, except the Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister.

ISSUES RELATED TO SPEAKER’S OFFICE:

• Questions over neutrality:
  • On several occasions, the office of speaker has been criticised for being an agent of pernicious partisan politics.
  • The root cause for this is the manner of their appointment. They contest the election for the post on a party ticket. Yet they are expected to conduct themselves in a non-partisan manner, while being beholden to the party for a ticket for the next election.
• Adjudicating powers of speaker under Tenth Schedule:
  • The determination of whether a representative has become subject to disqualification for defection is made by the presiding officer of the House. This offers ample scope for Speakers to exercise discretion.
  • This was seen in Andhra Pradesh in 2017. Here the opposition MLAs had broken away in small groups gradually to join the ruling party. However, it was alleged that the speaker delayed taking action against them till more than 2/3rd of the opposition had defected to the ruling party.
• Helping party in power during no-confidence motion:
  • For example: Meghalaya Speaker, P.R. Kyndiah, suspended the voting rights and later even disqualified five MLAs in the 1990s, just prior to a no-confidence motion.
• Executive lure speaker with ministership:
  • For example: G.S. Dhillon, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, was asked to step down by the Prime Minister in 1975, and made Union Minister for Shipping — a precedent that has allowed future holders of the position to harbour political ambitions.
• Absoluteness of the Speaker’s decisions:
  • The speaker has the power to take decisions on several matters such as deciding on whether a bill is a money bill or not, deciding on parliamentary matters etc. They have in many occasions come under the scanner.
  • For example: The speaker’s action of deciding the Aadhaar bill as a money bill was subjected to severe criticism.
• Misuse of speaker’s power to suspend members:
  • Instances of suspension of almost all the MLAs of the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2016, from the House while protesting, raise crucial questions about the health of our democracy.
  • Such suspensions are increasingly becoming common across State Assemblies, with a partisan Speaker in the vanguard of eroding India’s democratic character.
• Need for re-election also skews incentives for the Speaker:
  • No sitting Speaker of the House of Commons in Britain has lost his or her seat, given the convention not to field candidates in the Speaker’s constituency.
  • In comparison, in India, there are many Speakers who have lost their seats in general elections.
• Violation of parliamentary conventions in appointment:
  • Usually, a member belonging to the ruling party is elected the Speaker.
  • A healthy convention, however, has evolved over the years whereby the ruling party nominates its candidate after informal consultations with the Leaders of other Parties and Groups in the House.
  • Also, since the 11th Lok Sabha, there has been a consensus that the Speaker comes from the ruling party (or ruling alliance) and the post of Deputy Speaker goes to the main opposition party.
  • However, in recent times, both these conventions have been bypassed.
• No incentives for taking up the mantle:
  • In the British Parliament, once the speaker demits the office, he is automatically elevated to the House of Lords.
  • However, Indian speakers are not made members of the Rajya Sabha after they demit office. They have to contest again.
• Limits the realization of needs of their constituencies:
  • Though they may be elected as speakers, the member continues to be elected representatives.
  • But they are unable to bat for the interests of their constituencies in the house.

SUGGESTIONS:

• Speaker should renounce all political affiliations:
  • Political experts have suggested that a scheme should be brought wherein Speakers should renounce all political affiliations, membership and activity once they have been elected, both within the Assembly and in the country as a whole.
• Speaker should be allowed to continue in the next Parliament.
  • The V.S Page Committee suggested that if the Speaker had conducted himself or herself in an impartial and efficient manner during the tenure of his or her office, he or she should be allowed to continue in the next Parliament.
  • We could follow British system >> where speaker is automatically elevated to the House of Lords (second chamber), after his/her term.
• Barred from future posts:
  • Any Speaker should be barred from future political office, save that of the President, while being given a pension for life.
• Establishing new conventions:
  • Taking partisanship out of the post will require establishing other conventions.
  • Until 1996, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha always belonged to the ruling party.
  • The election of P.A. Sangma of the Congress, on a unanimous basis, set another convention – with the Speaker belonging to a party other than the ruling party.
  • However we have reversed track and moved back towards having the Speaker being from the ruling coalition.
• Speakers power regarding 10th schedule should be amended:
  • The adjudicating powers of speaker on matters regarding 10th schedule should be removed.
  • The same may be entrusted with the President or Governor, whose decisions should be based on the advice rendered by the election commission.
  • Recently, the Supreme Court of India in Keisham Meghachandra Singh case recommended that Parliament should rethink as to whether disqualification petitions ought to be entrusted to a Speaker as a quasi-judicial authority when such a Speaker continues to belong to a particular political party either de jure or de facto.

BEST PRACTICE:

• British model:
  • In Britain, the Speaker is strictly a non-party man. There is a convention that the Speaker has to resign from his party and remain politically neutral.
  • They have also developed the convention not to field candidates in the Speaker’s constituency.
  • Also, after his term, the British Parliament automatically elevates the Speaker to the House of Lords.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Q. “Speaker’s office has been criticised for being an agent of pernicious partisan politics”. In the light of this statement suggest some measures to strengthen the institution of the Speaker