Cong can claim Oppn status

The embattled Congress party, experts say, can claim the status of main opposition party by citing provisions in the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977. 

The Act terms Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha (LOP) as the member “who is for the time being the leader in that House of the party in opposition to the government having the greatest numerical strength and recognised as such by the Speaker”.

The Congress’s tally of 44 seats, beating its previous low of 114 seats in 1999, caused a flutter with the risk of its leader not being recognised as LOP because it fell short of a tenth of the total strength of 545 of the Lower House — as provided in the Act governing facilities for chief whips.

According to T K Vishwanathan, former secretary-general of the Lok Sabha, the new Speaker will have to take a call after considering the legal interpretation of this provision.

However, the Leaders and Chief Whips of Recognised Parties and Groups in Parliament (Facilities) Act, 1998, defines a “recognised party” in the Lok Sabha as “every party which has a strength of not less than 55 members in the House”.

Also, the “directions by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha under Rule 121” state that the Speaker may recognise an association of members as a parliamentary party which “shall have at least a strength equal to the quorum fixed to constitute a sitting of the house, that is one-tenth of the total number of members in the House”.

Vishwanathan, former Union law secretary and legal advisor to the President, said, “There is a view that the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act alone should be followed and the Act of 1998 was not applicable as it was about facilities for chief whips.”

Even though Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi said the opposition parties would have to form a “coalition” to claim their status as “opposition party”, the new government cannot wish away the post of LOP. The individual occupying that post plays a role in key appointments in the NHRC, the CVC, Lokpal and the CBI as per the directives of the Supreme Court.

Vishwanathan said the LoP occupies a seat in the front row left to the Chair. He or she also enjoys certain privileges on ceremonial occasions, like escorting the Speaker-elect to the rostrum and a seat in the front row at the time of the address by the President to members of both Houses of Parliament.

Striking a different note, Subash C Kashyap, another former secretary general of the Lok Sabha, believed that no party’s leader would qualify as LOP as none had won the minimum 10 per cent (54) of the Lok Sabha seats.

Parliament did not have an LOP from 1952 to 1977. After the 1977 elections, the Lok Sabha got its first LOP under the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977.