Pro-tem is a Latin phrase which means “for the time being”. A Protem speaker is a temporary speaker who presides over the first meeting of a newly constituted Lok Sabha or the State Legislative Assemblies.
While there are no specific constitutional or statutory provisions, by constitutional convention the seniormost member of the House has to be chosen as pro-tem speaker.
Seniority in this context refers to the membership in the House and not the age of the member.
Duties of Protem Speaker
- The main duty of the pro-tem speaker is to administer the oath of office to new members of the house.
- He also enables the House to elect a new speaker.
- If both speaker and the deputy speaker posts in the House lie vacant owing to death, resignation etc, then the tasks in the House are undertaken under the pro-tem speaker.
- He also administers the floor test.
Facts
- The First Protem Speaker of Lok Sabha was G.V Mavlankar.
- Seth Govind Das (Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth) and Shri Inderjit Gupta (Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth) have the rare distinction of serving as Protem Speaker in 4 successive Lok Sabhas.
- Dr Virendra Kumar was the Protem speaker for 17th Lok Sabha.
