Electing a Speaker, Deputy Speaker

• The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly has been without a Speaker for most of the time this year.
• Even Lok Sabha and several state Assemblies are without a Deputy Speaker.

Election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker:

• Article 93 for Lok Sabha and Article 178 for state Assemblies state that these Houses “shall, as soon as may be”, choose two of its members to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

• Committee, the General Purposes Committee and the Rules Committee work directly under his Chairmanship.

• The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker are elected from among its members by a simple majority of members present and voting in the House.
• As such, no specific qualifications are prescribed for being elected the Speaker.
• The Constitution only requires that Speaker should be a member of the House.
• 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.
• This convention ensures that once elected, the Speaker enjoys the respect of all sections of the House.

• There are also instances when members not belonging to the ruling party or coalition were elected to the Office of the Speaker.
• The Speaker pro tem presides over the sitting in which the Speaker is elected if it is a newly constituted House.

Term of Office of the Speaker:

• The Speaker holds Office from the date of his/her election till immediately before the first meeting of the next Lok Sabha (for 5 years).
• The speaker once elected is eligible for re-election.
• Whenever the Lok Sabha is dissolved, the Speaker does not vacate his office and continues till the newly-elected Lok Sabha meets.

• The Speaker may, at any time, resign from Office by writing under his/her hand to the Deputy Speaker.
• The Speaker can be removed from Office only on a resolution of the House passed by a majority of all the then members of the House.

Committees:

• All Committees of the House are constituted by him/her or by the House.
• The Chairmen of all Parliamentary Committees are nominated by him/her.
• Committees like the Business Advisory Committee, the General Purposes Committee and the Rules Committee work directly under his Chairmanship.

Role and Powers of Speaker:

• He is the final interpreter of the provisions of the Constitution of India, the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of Lok Sabha, and the parliamentary precedents, within the House.
• He/She presides over a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament.
• He/She can adjourn the House or suspend the meeting in absence one-tenth of the total strength of the House (called the quorum).
• The speaker does not vote in the first instance but in the case of a tie; when the House is divided equally on any question, the Speaker is entitled to vote.

• He/She decides whether a bill is a money bill or not and his/her decision on this question is final.
• It is the speaker who decides the questions of disqualification of a member of the Lok Sabha, arising on the ground of defection under the provisions of the Tenth Schedule.
• He/She acts as the ex-officio chairman of the Indian Parliamentary Group (IPG) which is a link between the Parliament of India and the various parliaments of the world.