Kharge Urges PM Modi To Fill Deputy Speaker Post, Cites Constitutional Lapse

Congress chief Kharge urged PM Modi to appoint a Lok Sabha deputy speaker, citing constitutional norms and stressing the need to fill the post before the Monsoon session after two terms of vacancy.

File photo of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Source : PTI

New Delhi, Jun 10 (PTI) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to initiate the process of electing a deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

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.

"Dear Prime Minister, 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.

"Article 93 of the Constitution of India mandates the election of both the speaker and the deputy speaker of the House of the People. Constitutionally, the deputy speaker is the second-highest presiding officer of the House after the speaker," he said.

Kharge said 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 noted.

In his letter to the PM, Kharge 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.

"This 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.

"In view of the foregoing and in keeping with the esteemed traditions of the House and the democratic ethos of our Parliament, I request your good self to initiate the process of electing a deputy speaker of Lok Sabha without any further delay," he asserted Kharge's demand comes ahead of Parliament's Monsoon session of Parliament starting from July 21. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)