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BSY camp fumes as Speaker remains incommunicado

Last Updated 23 January 2013, 18:19 IST

Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah and his office came under a verbal attack from the BJP MLAs who could not give a jolt to Jagadish Shettar government by submitting their resignation letters on Wednesday.

The absence of Bopaiah in the office and, refusal by Legislative Assembly joint secretary Jayateertha Galagali to accept the resignation letters of the MLAs left B S Yeddyurappa and his followers fretting and fuming.

They vociferously sought to know from the officials who were in the Secretariat, the whereabouts of the Speaker, but in vain. While the speculation was that Bopaiah was in Nepal, there was no confirmation on this count. If he has gone abroad, it has to be a private trip as the secretariat has not organised any official tour for him.

According to the Rules and Procedure and Conduct of Business in Karnataka Legislative Assembly, the Speaker is the sole authority for receiving and processing resignations of MLAs.

Rule 202 states that a member who desires to resign his seat in the House shall intimate to the Speaker, in his own handwriting and in the prescribed format, his intention to quit and, shall not give any reason for his resignation. It also states that a member should personally hand over the resignation letter to the Speaker and inform him that the resignation is voluntary and genuine.

If the Speaker receives the resignation letter either by post or through someone else, he may make such inquiry which he deems fit to satisfy himself that the resignation is voluntary and genuine.

Officials can receive

However, the Rule 202 is silent on who should receive the resignation letter in the absence of the Speaker. Do rules stop the Speaker’s office staff from even receiving resignation letters? S B Patil, former secretary of the Assembly, said that while any staff of the Speaker’s office can receive resignation letters, only Speaker has powers to accept or reject them.

“The Speaker alone has the right to accept or reject the resignations. But, in his absence, his personal secretary, special officer or any other officer is allowed to receive the letters. In Parliament, there are instances where the resignations sent through fax have been accepted when the Speaker was out of  the country.”

Asked whether the Governor, in the given situation, can direct the Speaker to make himself immediately available to the MLAs, Patil said, “normally such directions are not given. If the Speaker goes out of the country for a long duration or takes leave, there is provision under the Constitution to transfer his power to Deputy Speaker.”

Deputy Speaker N Yogish Bhat told Deccan Herald that he has no clue as to where the Speaker was.   

Public servant

Former Speaker Ramesh Kumar said the office of the Speaker comes under the Public Servants (Inquiries) Act, and the Speaker is obliged to keep his whereabouts known.

“The Speaker is duty bound to let the people know about his whereabouts even if he is on a private visit. The Speaker was aware of the developments in the ruling party and that a few MLAs were resigning on Wednesday.

He should have kept his whereabouts known or at least his personal secretary should have been in office,” Kumar opined.

He said that the Governor had every right to write to the State government to secure the presence of the Speaker.

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(Published 23 January 2013, 18:19 IST)

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