{"id":56388,"date":"2020-03-02T11:25:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T05:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?page_id=56388"},"modified":"2020-03-02T11:25:58","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T05:55:58","slug":"answered-in-light-of-various-controversies-critically-examine-the-role-of-speaker-in-parliamentary-democracy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-in-light-of-various-controversies-critically-examine-the-role-of-speaker-in-parliamentary-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] In light of various controversies, critically examine the role of speaker in Parliamentary Democracy."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n Demand of the question<\/strong>\n Introduction.\n <\/strong>Contextual introduction.\n Body.\n <\/strong>Discuss the role of Speaker of the Lok Sabha in a\n Parliamentary democracy and various issues related to it. \n Conclusion.\n <\/strong>Way forward.\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

India is a parliamentary democracy where\nthe Parliamentary proceedings are headed by the Speaker in the Lok Sabha. A parliamentary\ndemocracy is a system of government in which citizens elect representatives to\na legislative parliament to make the necessary laws and decisions for the\ncountry. In a parliamentary democracy, the Speaker represents the dignity and\nthe freedom of the House and the country\u2019s freedom and liberty. But the role of\nspeaker has been criticised for favouring political parties and remaining\nbiased to the party in majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Role of Speaker of the Lok Sabha in a Parliamentary democracy:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Ensure smooth proceedings of the house:<\/strong>\nThe Speaker presides over the meetings of the Lok Sabha and conducts its\nproceedings. He also presides over the joint sittings of the two Houses of the\nParliament. Therefore it enables parliament to successfully carry over the\ndebates and passage of important laws.<\/li>
  2. Maintain discipline in the Lok Sabha: <\/strong>The\nSpeaker maintains discipline in the House. If any member disrupts or tries to\ndisrupt the proceedings of the House, the Speaker can warn him or can ask him\nto leave the House. He can suspend a member from the House whom he finds guilty\nof violating the discipline and decorum. This ensures the smooth functioning of\nLok Sabha.<\/li>
  3. Fix the Agenda of the House: <\/strong>The\nSpeaker, in consultation with other members of the business committee of the\nHouse and the Prime Minister, fixes the agenda of the meetings of the House.\nThis ensures timely debates and discussion on important issues of the country.<\/li>
  4. Permission to ask questions:<\/strong> Each member\nof the House can put questions to the ministers; the permission of the Speaker\nis required purpose. This helps the speaker to prevent unnecessary and\npolitically motivated questions while ensuring discussion on the important\nquestions.<\/li>
  5. Conduct the business of the House:<\/strong> The\nSpeaker conducts the business of the House. He allows the members to introduce\nthe bills or to move motions. He recognises the members on the floor of the\nHouse and gives them time for speaking in the House. He fixes time limit for\nthe debates in the House, puts matters to vote, and announces the results. He\ncan warn the members against the use of unparliamentary language and can order\nthe same to be expunged from the records.<\/li>
  6. Interpretation of Rules of Procedure:<\/strong>\nThe business of the House is conducted according to definite and settled rules\nof procedure. In case of any dispute regarding the rules of the House, the\nSpeaker interprets and applies these rules. The interpretation of rules made by\nthe Speaker is final and cannot be challenged.<\/li>
  7. Power to adjourn the House:<\/strong> The Speaker\ncan adjourn the meetings of the House if the quorum of the House is not\ncomplete or if the conducting the business of the House is not possible due to\na disorderly behaviour of its members. This ensures the presence of members in\nthe parliament; performing his\/her duties as mandated by citizens by electing\nhim\/her.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Criticism\nfaced by office of the Speaker:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Impartiality: <\/strong>In a parliamentary democracy office of speaker should be\nfair and impartial but they are usually elected to the House on a political\nparty’s ticket. In Britain, the Speaker is strictly a non-party man. There is a\nconvention that the Speaker has to resign from his party and remain politically\nneutral. This healthy convention is not fully established in India where the\nSpeaker does not resign from the membership of his party on his election to the\nspeaker office. This makes it more of a political liability on the speaker to favour his party. <\/li>
    2. Anti-defection law:<\/strong> In recent times, there are a\nnumber of instances where the role of speaker has\nbeen criticised for disqualification of MLAs under the anti-defection law and\ntheir ruling has been challenged in courts. In\ntwo recent cases, prior to dismissal of governments in Uttarakhand and\nArunachal Pradesh, the Speakers in both assemblies had helped ruling parties by\nusing their powers to disqualify MLAs under the 10th<\/sup> Schedule.<\/li>
    3. Discretionary power:<\/strong> There are various instances where the Rules vest the\nSpeakers with unbridled powers such as in case of declaration of bill as money\nbill (Lok Sabha Speaker). This discretionary power comes under criticism when the Aadhar bill was introduced in Lok\nSabha as Money Bill. <\/li>
    4. Review of the Speaker\u2019s Decisions:<\/strong> Under the Rules, the Speaker is not answerable\nto any person in performing the roles assigned to him. Decisions of presiding\nofficers are final and are not open to appeal or subject to review. This is in\nstark contrast with the American system, where the presiding officer\u2019s\ndecisions may be appealed against to a committee. In India, a member of the\nHouse may strongly disagree with the determination of the Speaker, but as per\nthe Rules, he does not have any recourse apart from pursuing his interests\nthrough parliamentary procedures. In the Kihoto Hollohan case, the SC\ndeclared that the speaker is subject to judicial review.<\/li>
    5. Increased disruptions:<\/strong> Frequent disruptions reduced the time required\nfor important discussions and compel speakers to allocate less time for discussion. This often questions\nthe impartiality of the speaker as he\nallegedly provides more time to the ruling\nparty. Also, it is alleged that the speaker\ntook harsh punishment against the disrupting member of opposition compared to\nthe government.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      The Speaker plays the crucial role of\nensuring that the Parliament carries forward its role of legislation\npeacefully, maintaining harmony in the Houses of Parliament and taking crucial\nprocedural decisions of the House. The Speaker is considered as the true\nguardian of the Indian Parliamentary democracy, holding the complete authority\nof the Lok Sabha. Thus, impartiality of the office is very important to make\nparliamentary democracy work in true sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Demand of the question Introduction. Contextual introduction. Body. Discuss the role of Speaker of the Lok Sabha in a Parliamentary democracy and various issues related to it. Conclusion. Way forward. India is a parliamentary democracy where the Parliamentary proceedings are headed by the Speaker in the Lok Sabha. A parliamentary democracy is a system of… Continue reading [Answered] In light of various controversies, critically examine the role of speaker in Parliamentary Democracy.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-56388","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}