Birla to be present in House but not chair proceedings

The Lok Sabha will witness a rare moment, most likely next Monday, when Om Birla will not chair the proceedings but will be seated amongst the members as the House takes up a notice seeking his removal from office.

As Parliament meets for the second phase of the Budget session on March 9, the Lok Sabha is likely to take up the resolution moved by the Opposition against Birla for allegedly acting in a “blatantly partisan” manner.

According to the rules and laid down procedure, Birla will have the right to defend himself when the resolution is discussed by the lower house. He will also have the right to vote against the resolution, Constitution expert PDT Achary explained.

The expert said that while Birla will not chair the proceedings when the resolution comes up before the House, he will be seated in the prominent rows in the Treasury benches.

The day the notice was submitted, Birla had stopped chairing the House, taking a stand.

“Though he could have chaired the House till the day the notice came up before the Lok Sabha, he took a stand and decided not to be present in the House till the resolution against him was settled. He upheld the highest standards of morality,” a Lok Sabha Secretariat functionary said. Past speakers against whom such resolutions were planned had continued to attend the House, the functionary pointed out.

At least 118 Opposition members had submitted a notice for moving a resolution to remove Birla from office for not allowing Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders to speak in the House on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, as well as for suspending eight MPs.

Congress member and chief whip K Suresh submitted the notice to the Lok Sabha secretariat on behalf of several opposition parties, including his party, the Samajwadi Party and the DMK. TMC MPs, however, did not sign the notice.

Achary, a former Lok Sabha secretary general, told PTI that the “allocation of the seat, which the Speaker occupies under such circumstances, is not mentioned in the Rules”.

He said Birla will also not be able to vote on the resolution using the automated vote system, but will have to fill out a slip to register his vote. Achary presumes that a seat belonging to a Union minister, who is from the Rajya Sabha, could be given to him as only Lok Sabha members will be able to cast their votes for or against the resolution.

Deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha and deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha have their earmarked seats in their respective Houses when they are not presiding over. Front seats in the Opposition benches are allocated to them. Article 96 of the Constitution bars a speaker or a deputy speaker from presiding over the House while a resolution for his removal from office is under consideration.

The speaker has a constitutional right to defend himself in the House if the resolution is discussed in the Lok Sabha.

At least two Lok Sabha members have to sign the notice to move a resolution for the speaker’s removal. Any number of members can sign the notice, but a minimum of two is mandatory. The speaker can be removed from office by a resolution passed by the House through a simple majority. Article 94C of the Constitution has provisions for such a move.

“All the members of the House are counted to compute the majority, not the members present and voting, which is the normal practice. It means the effective membership of the House, except for the vacancies, is used to calculate the majority,” Achary said.

The document is then examined at the preliminary stage to see whether it contains “very specific charges”, he said. The resolution must not contain defamatory language or content.

Article 96 gives the speaker the opportunity to defend himself or herself in the House. The language of the proposed resolution is usually examined by the deputy speaker, but since the present Lok Sabha does not have a deputy speaker, it may be examined, perhaps by the senior-most member of the panel of chairpersons.

The panel helps the speaker run the House in his or her absence.

“The speaker examining a resolution that seeks his removal looks absurd,” Achary said, adding that the rule is silent on the subject.

Once the processing part is over, the resolution reaches the House. But it can go to the House after 14 days, Achary said. The chair then places it in the House for consideration. It is actually the House which admits it, or as the rule says, “grants permission”.

Achary further said, “The chair then asks members in favour of the resolution to stand up. If 50 members stand up in support of it and if that criterion is fulfilled, the Chair announces that the House has granted permission.

“Once the House grants permission, it has to be taken up for discussion and disposed of within 10 days.”

Lok Sabha sources said the notice will be taken up for discussion on Monday itself. There are precedents of resolutions being moved. However, none has been adopted so far. “The reason — Governments have a majority,” Achary said.

The resolution alleges that Speaker Birla had acted in a “blatantly partisan” manner in conducting the business of the House and “abused” the constitutional office he occupies.

Three Lok Sabha speakers — GV Mavlankar (1954), Hukam Singh (1966) and Balram Jakhar (1987) — had faced no-confidence motions in the past, which were negatived.