Why government still doesn't have a Deputy Lok Sabha Speaker

On Tuesday, Lok Sabha completed 1,151 days without a Deputy Speaker as the Narendra Modi government has not moved ahead choosing one though the Constitution provides for such a post.

This prompted RSP MP N K Premachandran to introduce a private member Bill in Lok Sabha last week to amend Article 93 of the Constitution to insert a specific time limit of one month to choose a Deputy Speaker within a month from the date of election of Speaker.

At present, Article 93 says that the Lok Sabha should choose two members of the House as Speaker and Deputy Speaker “as soon as may be”. The legislative intent in Article 93 is not complied with due to the “lack of time stipulation”, Premachandran’s Bill says.

The importance of the post could be gauged from the fact that the Constitution stipulates that it is the Deputy Speaker to whom the Speaker has to submit his resignation if he chooses to do so.

The Constituent Assembly debates also show the importance given to Deputy Speaker, as member MV Kamath chose to withdraw his amendment to make the Speaker submit his resignation to the President after B R Ambedkar and others argued against it. Ambedkar said it cannot be accepted as the House should remain independent of the Executive.

An analysis of the choosing of Deputy Speaker showed that the present Lok Sabha has the longest period of pendency to choose an MP for the post. In the 11th Lok Sabha, Suraj Bhan was elected as Deputy Speaker within 52 days while the next Lok Sabha saw PM Sayeed taking over the post on the 270th day.

Sayeed again became the Deputy Speaker in the 13th Lok Sabha when it took just seven days, similar to the number of days taken by Charanjit Singh Atwal and Karia Munda in the 14th and 15th Lok Sabha respectively. In the previous Lok Sabha, M Thambi Durai was elected on the 71st day.

The political grapevine is that the ruling BJP prefers to give the post to BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab but Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik has not given his nod.

Premachandran argues that the words “as soon as” is not considered in the case of choosing the Deputy Speaker.

According to the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill, the post of Deputy Speaker is vacant for a long time and it is “highly necessary to fill up the vacancy of the Deputy Speaker for compliance of Constitutional provisions.

“This House (Lok Sabha) is bound by the mandate of the Constitution. But the same is prolonged taking the advantage that there is no time stipulation,” it said.

In the Constituent Assembly, Kamath had argued that he felt that it would be better if the Speaker addresses his letter of resignation to the President because the Deputy Speaker holds an office subordinate to him.

Another member Shibban Lal Saxena opposed Kamath pointing out that the President is the Executive head and wants the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker to be completely independent of the Executive.

He argued that if the Speaker should send in his resignation to the Deputy Speaker, it only means that the independence of the Speaker and the House over which he presides should be maintained. "If we send it to the President, it means we send it to the Executive. It is a very healthy principle that the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker should be completely independent of the Executive," Saxena said.

While Tajamul Hussain supported Kamath, Ambedkar told the Assembly that the original proposal is based upon a very simple principle and it is this, that a person normally tenders his resignation to another person who has appointed him.

"The existing article is now the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker are persons who are appointed or chosen or elected by the House. Consequently, these two people, if they want to resign, must tender their resignations to the House which is the appointing authority. Of course, the House being a collective body of people, a resignation could not be addressed to each member of the House separately," he said.

"Consequently, the provision is made that the resignation should be addressed either to the Speaker or to the Deputy Speaker because it is they who represent the House. Really speaking, in theory, the resignation is to the House because it is the House which has appointed them. The President is not the person who has appointed them," he said.

"Consequently, it would be very incongruous to require the Deputy Speaker or the Speaker to tender their resignations to the President who has nothing to do with the House and who should have nothing to do with the House in order that the House may be independent of the executive authority exercised either through the President or through the Government of the day," he added.