{"id":266972,"date":"2023-10-30T20:18:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T14:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=266972"},"modified":"2023-10-30T20:42:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T15:12:43","slug":"on-the-speaker-give-up-impropriety-demonstrate-impartiality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/on-the-speaker-give-up-impropriety-demonstrate-impartiality\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Speaker \u2013 Give up impropriety, demonstrate impartiality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: <\/strong>This post on the Speaker<\/strong> has been created based on the article \u201cGive up impropriety, demonstrate impartiality\u201d<\/strong> published in The Hindu <\/strong>on 30th<\/sup> October 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Indian Polity \u2013 Parliament and State legislatures \u2014structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

News<\/strong>:\u00a0This article discusses the various issues in the functioning of the Speaker lately, which have signaled a decline in the independence of the office. It also highlights reforms to ensure its impartial functioning.<\/p>\n

Article 93 of the Constitution<\/strong>\u00a0provides for the election of both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker to the Lok Sabha. (Article 178<\/strong> for Speaker in state legislative assemblies<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

What are the functions of the Speaker in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) Interpretation:<\/strong>\u00a0He\/She is the\u00a0final interpreter<\/strong>\u00a0of the provisions of the\u00a0Constitution of India<\/strong>, the\u00a0Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of Lok Sabha<\/strong> within the House.<\/p>\n

2) Constitution of Committees:<\/strong>\u00a0The\u00a0Committees of the House are constituted by the speaker<\/strong>\u00a0and function under the speaker\u2019s overall direction.<\/p>\n

3) Custodian of the rights and privileges<\/strong> of the House, its committees and its members.<\/p>\n

4) Money Bill:<\/strong>\u00a0He\/She\u00a0decides whether a bill is a\u00a0Money Bill\u00a0or not<\/strong>\u00a0and his\/her decision on this question is final.<\/p>\n

5) Disqualifying Members:<\/strong>\u00a0It is the speaker who\u00a0decides the questions of disqualification of a member<\/strong>\u00a0of the Lok Sabha, arising on the ground of defection under the provisions of the\u00a0Tenth Schedule<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What are the issues with the functioning of the Speaker?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) Regarding suspension of members for misconduct:<\/strong> It is noticed that the Speakers misuse these provisions usually against the Opposition members.
\nFor instance, no swift action was taken against a member of the ruling party for passing communal slurs in Parliament recently.<\/p>\n

2) Regarding referring of bills to committees: <\/strong>Significant bills that require detailed scrutiny are not referred to committees.
\nAs against more than 60%<\/strong> of Bills referred to committees in the Lok Sabha during 2004-14, less than 25%<\/strong> have been referred during 2014-2023.<\/p>\n

3) Regarding certifying of bills as Money Bills:<\/strong> There have also been challenges in the Court in recent years against certification of certain Bills as a Money Bill by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
\nFor instance, the Aadhar Bill.<\/p>\n

4) Regarding disqualification: <\/strong>Past instances have shown the Speakers favouring the ruling dispensation. This can derail the stability of elected governments.<\/p>\n

What should be the way forward?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Supreme Court in\u00a0Keisham Meghachandra Singh vs The Honble Speaker Manipur<\/strong>\u00a0(2020), recommended that Parliament amend the Constitution to vest the powers of the Speaker regarding disqualification in an independent tribunal to be headed by judges.<\/p>\n

In Britain<\/strong>, the Speaker, once elected, resigns from his\/her political party, thus reflecting impartiality while presiding over the House. Adopting this practice will build confidence in the office of the Speaker.<\/p>\n

It is also important that Speakers avoid actions that are inappropriate and demonstrate \u2018impartiality\u2019<\/strong>, in consonance with sound democratic practices.<\/p>\n

Question for practice:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The success of India\u2019s parliamentary democracy hangs on the non-partisanship and impartiality of its institutions, especially the office of the Speaker. However, several issues hamper the independent functioning of the Speaker. Analyse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: This post on the Speaker has been created based on the article \u201cGive up impropriety, demonstrate impartiality\u201d published in The Hindu on 30th October 2023. UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Indian Polity \u2013 Parliament and State legislatures \u2014structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.\u00a0 News:\u00a0This article… Continue reading On the Speaker \u2013 Give up impropriety, demonstrate impartiality<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,225,10498],"class_list":["post-266972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-polity","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":54,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1698736083},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}