Lok Sabha Speaker stresses on neutrality of presiding officers in legislatures

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday said the powers of presiding officers in legislatures should be "limited" to help maintain their neutrality "so that no court needs to make a comment".

His remarks came a day after the Supreme Court said Parliament should "rethink" whether the Speaker of a House should continue to have powers to disqualify lawmakers as such a functionary "belongs to a particular political party".

Referring to a recent Conference of Presiding Officers of Legislative Bodies in Dehradun, Birla said the participants discussed the need to limit the rights of presiding officers of the legislative councils.

"In a democracy, people ask for rights and demand for increasing these. But there was a dialogue amongst the presiding officers on how to maintain neutrality, for this powers of presiding officers should be limited and this will help maintain the tradition of a healthy democracy so that no court needs to make a comment," he said without elaborating.

The Supreme Court had recently also made an observation about "a growing trend of speakers of legislative bodies acting against the constitutional duty of being neutral".

Asserting that legislatures are "temples of democracy", Birla said elected representatives should ensure that there are no disruptions and the House runs smoothly and orderly.

Speaking here on the concluding day of an orientation programme organised by Haryana Vidhan Sabha for the newly elected legislators, he said there should be discussion, debate and dissent in the House but no disturbance.

"The House should run, this should be our first priority... A decision and pledge has to be taken that there will be no disruption for even a minute. Governments should also try to play a role in this," he said.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, Union Minister R L Kataria, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, now the leader of opposition, and BJP MPs from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, Hisar, Rohtak, Kurukshetra and Sirsa were also present at the event in addition to MLAs.

Referring to the Haryana chief minister saying that during his previous tenure, he had taken initiative to increase the number of sessions held and sittings of the assembly, Birla, speaking generally, expressed concern over the decreasing number of sittings of various assemblies.

"If in Vidhan Sabhas and Lok Sabha, number of sessions and sittings come down, where will elected representatives raise matters concerning people,” Birla asked.

Citing an example, he said in the 12th Haryana Assembly only 56 sittings (approximately 10-12 sittings per year) were held in five years, which is not a good sign for a healthy democracy.

He also expressed concern saying Vidhan Sabhas and Lok Sabha are losing precious time due to disruptions and added "this is a matter of serious concern for the country".

"In the world, India's democracy remained strong because over the years the way our members openly and freely debated on every issue in the assemblies and parliament, there have been exchanges and use of humour too, but whenever country's question arose, they (legislatures) stood solidly behind on those issues,” he said.

The Haryana chief minister said earlier discussions on the Budget in the Vidhan Sabha were held after presenting it. "But it has been decided to hold discussions before presenting the Budget so that good suggestions of the public representatives could be incorporated in the Budget,” he said.

He said during the last five years, 86 sittings of the Vidhan Sabha has been held which would be further increased to 100 in coming five years so that issues of public interest could be discussed in length.