NEW DELHI: Ahead of Parliament's Monsoon session starting next month, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to initiate the process of electing a deputy Speaker in the Lok Sabha.
The post of Deputy Speaker in the Lok Sabha has been vacant for the last six years.
In his letter, Kharge pointed out that Article 93 of the Constitution of India mandates the election of both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the House of the People.
"I am writing to bring to your kind attention the highly concerning matter in regard to the prevailing vis-à-vis the vacancy of the Deputy Speaker in the Lok Sabha. Constitutionally, the Deputy Speaker is the second-highest presiding officer of the House after the Speaker," he wrote.
Kharge wrote that, according to Article 93 of the Constitution, the Lok Sabha may choose two members of the House to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker, and that when either office becomes vacant, another member shall be elected to the post.
The Congress chief further said that traditionally, the Deputy Speaker has been elected in the second or third session of a newly constituted Lok Sabha.
"The procedure for this election mirrors that of the Speaker, with the only distinction being that the date for the Deputy Speaker's election is fixed by the Speaker, as per Rule 8(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha," he added.
Kharge also noted that from the first to the sixteenth Lok Sabha, every House has had a deputy speaker. By and large, it has been a well-established convention to appoint the deputy speaker from among the members of the principal opposition party, he said.
"However, for the first time in independent India's history, this position has remained vacant for two consecutive Lok Sabha terms. No Deputy Speaker was elected during the seventeenth Lok Sabha, and this concerning precedent continues in the ongoing eighteenth Lok Sabha," Kharge said.
Keeping the position vacant "does not augur well for India's democratic polity and is also in violation of well-laid-out provisions of the Constitution," the Congress chief said.
At present, a panel of chairpersons presides over sittings of the House in the absence of the Speaker. The panel of 10 MPs was appointed by the Speaker in last July.
The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha saw an unprecedented showdown between the NDA and the Opposition over the election of the Lok Sabha Speaker.
The contest for the Speaker post, the fourth instance in the history of Independent India and the first in nearly 50 years, was necessitated after the Opposition and the government failed to reach a consensus on the issue of the post of Deputy Speaker.
Though Speakers have been chosen mostly by consensus, the Opposition argues that it was compelled to field its candidate after the Modi government refused to concede the Deputy Speaker post to them.
Experts point out that as per Rule 8, election to the post of the Deputy Speaker "shall be held on such date as the Speaker may fix."
The Deputy Speaker is elected once a motion proposing his or her name is moved. According to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the LS, the Deputy Speaker enjoys the same powers as the Speaker when presiding over a sitting House.
According to Article 180 of the Constitution, the Deputy Speaker has the power to perform the duties of the Speaker when the chair is vacant.
In the 16th Lok Sabha, during PM Modi’s first term, the post was held by M. Thambidurai of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).
During the tenure of UPA 1, Charanjit Singh Atwal, a leader of the then-BJP ally Akali Dal, held the post of Deputy Speaker. During UPA 2, the BJP’s Kariya Munda held the post as deputy speaker. During Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure from 1999 to 2004, P M Sayeed of the Congress held the post.
