The Lok Sabha Speaker Is Chosen by the Members, Gives Up Party Ties by Convention, Controls What Reaches the Floor and Has Survived Four Removal Resolutions Since 1954

The Speaker of the Lok Sabha is a member of the House whom the other members choose, under Article 93 of the Constitution, to chair its sittings. The first to hold the post, G. V. Mavalankar, was elected on 15 May 1952 by a recorded vote of 394 to 55, according to Siasat’s account of the House’s Speaker elections. The Speaker has since decided which questions are put to ministers, whether a point of order is valid, and, under the Tenth Schedule, whether a member who changed party loses the seat. The wider workings of the House are in our guide to the Lok Sabha.

How the House picks a Speaker, and who sits in the chair until it does

Article 93 says the House “shall, as soon as may be” choose two of its members to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker. The Constituent Assembly adopted the draft of the article on 19 May 1949 without a substantive debate, according to the Constitution of India archive. The method is left to the House’s own rules. Rule 7 has the President fix the date, and members hand in written notices of a motion naming a colleague by noon on the day before, each seconded and accompanied by a statement that the person named is willing to serve. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs’ handbook adds that the motion for the ruling alliance’s candidate is generally arranged by the Minister’s office.

Most elections since 1976 have gone without a recorded vote. Siasat lists the contested ones with their tallies: 394 to 55 in 1952, 278 to 207 in 1967 and 344 to 58 in 1976. In 1998 a motion for one candidate was negatived and a motion for G. M. C. Balayogi was adopted. On 26 June 2024 the Opposition fielded a candidate against the sitting Speaker, and All India Radio reported that it did not press for a vote, so the House decided by voice.

A new House meets without a Speaker. The second proviso to Article 94 keeps the old Speaker in office until immediately before the first meeting of the next House after a dissolution, so the office falls vacant at that moment. Article 95(1) then lets the President appoint a member to perform the Speaker’s duties. This member is called the Speaker pro tem, Latin for “for the time being”.

The handbook describes the practice. The appointee is normally among the senior-most members, measured by years in the Lok Sabha, “even though there have been exceptions”. The President administers the oath to the pro tem at Rashtrapati Bhavan, and the pro tem then swears in the other members with the help of three more senior members whom the President appoints. During the 14th Lok Sabha the member chosen as pro tem was also proposed as Speaker. The Ministry examined the point with the Department of Legal Affairs and decided to appoint two pro tem Speakers, so that a different one sat in the chair for the election.

What the Speaker controls before a debate begins

The Speaker decides when the House sits (Rule 13) and what comes before it. Rule 43 lets the Speaker rule whether a question is admissible and disallow it when it abuses the right of questioning or obstructs the House’s procedure. Rule 187 gives the same power over motions. Under Rule 83 the Speaker selects which new clauses and amendments to a Bill are proposed.

Time for Government Bills comes from the Business Advisory Committee, whose chairperson is the Speaker (Rule 287). It recommends how long each stage of a Bill and other business should take, in the matters the Speaker, in consultation with the Leader of the House, refers to it (Rule 288). The Speaker also chairs the Committee on Rules, fifteen members whom the Speaker nominates, which recommends changes to the rules themselves (Rule 330). The General Purposes Committee, another body the Speaker chairs, advises on whatever House affairs the Speaker refers to it. Our account of Parliament’s sessions and committees covers what the standing committees then do.

Rule 389 supplies the remainder. All matters not specifically provided for in the rules, and all questions about how the rules work, are “regulated in such manner as the Speaker may, from time to time, direct”.

Keeping order, and why courts stay out

Rule 378 makes the Speaker responsible for preserving order, with all powers needed to enforce the Speaker’s decisions. A member whose conduct is grossly disorderly can be told to withdraw for the day (Rule 373). In grave disorder the Speaker may adjourn the House or suspend a sitting (Rule 375), and may order words that are defamatory, indecent, unparliamentary or undignified removed from the record (Rule 380). On a point of order, the Speaker decides whether the matter raised is one, and Rule 376(3) calls that decision final. The suspension rules, 374 and 374A, are set out in our Lok Sabha guide.

Article 122 protects these decisions. Proceedings in Parliament cannot be questioned in court for an alleged irregularity of procedure, and no officer or member with powers to regulate procedure or keep order is subject to a court’s jurisdiction for using them. The Speaker’s pay is also placed out of reach of the annual budget vote. Article 112(3)(b) charges the salaries and allowances of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker on the Consolidated Fund of India, and under Article 113(1) such expenditure is not submitted to the vote of Parliament, though either House may discuss it. Article 98 gives each House its own secretarial staff.

A vote only to break a tie

Under Article 100(1) the Speaker does not vote in the first instance and has only a casting vote when the House is evenly divided. The Lok Sabha’s own FAQ adds that this vote is usually used to maintain the status quo. The Speaker presides over a joint sitting of the two Houses (Article 118(4)); how those come about is in our guide to the Rajya Sabha.

Two other constitutional duties fall to the Speaker. The Speaker’s decision on whether a Bill is a Money Bill is final, and the Speaker’s certificate goes on the Bill (Article 110(3) and (4), covered in our piece on money bills). And when a member resigns by writing to the Speaker, Article 101(3) lets the Speaker refuse to accept the resignation if, after such inquiry as the Speaker thinks fit, it is not voluntary or genuine.

Why the Speaker leaves the party

Nothing in Article 93 asks a Speaker to resign from a party, and the practice is a convention. N. Sanjiva Reddy, elected Speaker in the fourth Lok Sabha, gave up his Congress membership on his election, which the Constitution of India archive calls a first for an MP and the Manorama Yearbook calls a first since Independence. The Tenth Schedule makes room for it. Paragraph 5 protects a Speaker from disqualification for giving up the party on election to the office, and for rejoining it after leaving the chair.

The Tenth Schedule also gives the Speaker a judge’s task. Under paragraph 6, a question whether a member has been disqualified for defection goes to the Speaker, whose decision “shall be final”. If the question concerns the Speaker, the House elects another member to decide. Paragraph 8 lets the Speaker make the rules for these cases, which lie before the House for thirty days. How the law came about and how it has been applied is in our article on the anti-defection law.

Two judgments define the limits. In Kihoto Hollohan on 18 February 1992 the majority of three judges held that a Speaker acting under the Schedule is a tribunal whose decisions courts can review. It quoted the view that the Speaker is “the very embodiment of propriety and impartiality”. The two dissenting judges held that the Speaker’s tenure depends on the support of the House’s majority, so the Speaker cannot be the independent decider such disputes need. On 21 January 2020 in Keisham Meghachandra Singh, a three-judge bench held that a Speaker must ordinarily decide a petition within three months of its filing, and asked Parliament to consider replacing the Speaker in these cases with a permanent tribunal headed by a retired judge.

Removal, and the four resolutions so far

Article 94(c) lets the House remove the Speaker by a resolution passed by a majority of all its then members, which is more than a majority of those present, and Article 94 bars moving it without 14 days’ notice. Rule 200A requires charges to be specific and clearly expressed, with no arguments, inferences or imputations. At the stage of leave under Rule 201, at least fifty members must rise in support, or the House refuses leave. The discussion is confined to the charges (Rule 202A).

While the resolution is considered, the Speaker, though present, does not preside (Article 96). The Speaker may speak and take part, and may vote only in the first instance, not to break a tie. The Deputy Speaker would take the chair, but PRS Legislative Research noted on 18 April 2026 that the Lok Sabha had gone seven years without electing one.

The first such resolution was against Mavalankar in December 1954, signed by Dr N. B. Khare, who accused him of rejecting his questions, according to PRS. Mavalankar stayed in office. By the Lok Sabha’s own table he served until 27 February 1956, when he died. PRS says that resolutions were also moved in 1966 and 1987, and that no Speaker has ever been removed.

The fourth came in 2026. Scroll reported that 118 Opposition members signed the notice, which alleged partisan conduct by the Speaker. A Union minister defended the Speaker’s neutrality in the debate, according to Onmanorama. With the Deputy Speaker’s chair empty, senior members presided, and the Speaker stayed out of the House. The Lok Sabha rejected the resolution by voice vote on 11 March 2026, and PRS records that the debate ran over 12 hours across two days.