In December 1954, passion was running high in the Lok Sabha. The House was debating the first-ever resolution to remove a Speaker, G V Mavalankar, from office.

Dr N B Khare, a member representing Gwalior, whose voters had elected him on a Hindu Mahasabha ticket, was one of the resolution’s signatories. Highlighting his grievances against the Speaker, the impassioned Khare, a 72-year-old who was a doctor and had a long legislative career, accused Mavalankar of “mental murder, albeit effected non-violently”. He then raised some papers to show the House his rejected questions and stated, “Here are about two dozen death warrants of my poor dry dead questions. Not one was admitted in this Session.”

Parliament will witness a similar debate on March 9, when MPs are likely to discuss and vote on the motion to remove Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Opposition MPs have given a notice for the removal of the Speaker “because of the blatantly partisan manner in which he has been conducting the business of the Lok Sabha…”

The office of the Speaker can be traced to the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms and the Government of India Act of 1919. These provided that the central legislative assembly would be presided over by a president, the first appointed and subsequent ones elected by the assembly members. The law provided that the elected presidents could be removed by the members through a vote.

In 1925, assembly members elected Vithalbhai........

© Indian Express