Vacant LS Dy Speaker post: Cong says govt again ‘destroying all established practices’

Calling the issue “very important”, a Bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on Monday sought the assistance of Attorney General R Venkataramani in dealing with the PIL that, besides the Lok Sabha, referred to the Assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan, where there are no Deputy Speakers.

Secretary General of the Lok Sabha and principal secretaries or secretaries of the Assemblies have been made parties in the case.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said: “This government is destroying all established practices and conventions of the Lok Sabha… It is the right of the Opposition. Traditionally, the post of Deputy Speaker has always been held by Opposition parties. The government can give it to whichever party they want, but the tradition should not be broken.”

Chowdhury said he had written several letters to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, asking him to elect a Deputy Speaker. He said that he pointed out to Birla that “according to the Constitutional mandate, the seat of the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha should be filled either by election or consensus as early as it may, after a new Lok Sabha is constituted”.

Birla has earlier maintained: “It (the selection of the Deputy Speaker) is a process, and when the time comes, it will be done.” However, sources close to the Speaker said the issue is the “prerogative of the government” and “a decision has to be taken by the government”.

Congress sources said the post of Deputy Speaker has never remained vacant for so long. Both during the UPA’s two terms and the Narendra Modi government’s first term in office, the Deputy Speaker was elected within three months of the constitution of the Lok Sabha, they say.

Calling it “nothing but a mockery of democracy”, Chowdhury said it reflected that “the government doesn’t want to run the country on a democratic path”. “So each and every democratic institution is destroyed and trampled upon.”

The Treasury benches maintain that there is no “immediate requirement” for a Deputy Speaker as “Bills are being passed and discussions being held”. BJP sources also said there had been some discussion in the past about choosing members from friendly parties like the BJD or YSR Congress Party for the post.

Regarding the notice sent by the Supreme Court, sources in the government said it is still preparing the response.

A minister said there is “a panel of nine members” to act as chairpersons to assist the Speaker in the running of the House. “These members are seniors, experienced and selected from different parties. So, one cannot say it is unilateral,” he added.

The nine members are Rama Devi (BJP), Kirit P Solanki (BJP), Rajendra Agrawal (BJP), Kodikkunnil Suresh (Congress), A Raja (DMK), P V Midhun Reddy (YSRCP), Bhartruhari Mehtab (BJD), N K Premachandran (RSP) and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar (TMC).

From 2014-19, during Modi’s first tenure, the AIADMK’s M Thambidurai was the Deputy Speaker. The Manmohan Singh-led UPA government gave the post to the Akali Dal’s Charanjit Singh Atwal in the first term (2004-09), and the BJP’s Kariya Munda in its second (2009-14). Under the BJP-led NDA government of A B Vajpayee, the post was left to the Congress, which nominated P M Sayeed.

Article 93 of the Constitution, which deals with the speaker and deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha, reads: “The House of the People shall, as soon as may be, choose two members of the House to be respectively Speaker and Deputy Speaker thereof and, so often as the office of Speaker or Deputy Speaker becomes vacant, the House shall choose another member to be Speaker or Deputy Speaker, as the case may be.”

According to Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, “the Deputy Speaker or any other member competent to preside over a sitting of the House under the Constitution or these rules shall, when so presiding, have the same powers as the Speaker when so presiding and all references to the Speaker in these rules shall in these circumstances be deemed to be references to any such person so presiding.”

The Deputy Speaker is also a member of the General Purposes Committee, the function of which is to “consider and advise on such matters concerning the affairs of the House as may be referred to by the Speaker from time to time”.