Akbaruddin Owaisi’s appointment to the post led to furore in the state assembly as eight BJP MLAs refused to take oath administered by him. But this could just be a temporary state of affairs till the Speaker is elected
By Vivek K Agnihotri
The recent appointment of Akbaruddin Owaisi, six-time AIMIM MLA, as pro-tem Speaker in the 119-member Telangana assembly invited protests from eight BJP MLAs. Led by T Raja Singh Lodh, MLA from Goshamahal, they refused to take the oath administered by Owaisi on political and ideological grounds.
Akbaruddin Owaisi was appointed as pro-tem Speaker for the first session of the third Telangana assembly. He was appointed on the advice of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his name was sent to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan who administered the oath to him at Raj Bhavan.
The Constitution does not use the words pro-tem Speaker. However, according to Article 180(1) of the Constitution, when the offices of both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker are vacant, as in the case of a general election to the legislative assembly, the duties of the Speaker are performed by such a member of the legislature as the governor may appoint for the purpose. The person so appointed is known as the pro-tem Speaker. The expression pro-tem is a contraction of the phrase pro termpora which means “lasting only for the time being”. After his appointment, the pro-tem Speaker continues in office till the election of the Speaker by the House.
After a general election, the main responsibility of the pro-tem Speaker is to administer oath/affirmation to the newly elected members of the legislative assembly and conduct the election of the Speaker. The pro-tem Speaker has all the powers of the Speaker under the Constitution, rules of procedure or otherwise. He, however, functions only till the House elects the Speaker.
There are no specific constitutional or statutory provisions for appointment of the pro-tem Speaker. Normally, the senior most member of the House is chosen for this post and his name is suggested by the chief minister, who may place the matter before the council of ministers.
Congress leader Uttam Kumar Reddy has clarified that going by seniority in the legislative assembly, he himself, as a six-term MLA, was eligible for appointment as pro-tem Speaker. However, since he was appointed as a minister, they had to look around for another six-term MLA and hence, Akbaruddin Owaisi was recommended for appointment as pro-tem Speaker.
In any case, there is no constitutional provision or rule which requires that the senior most member has to be appointed for the purpose. It is only a convention.
The appointment of pro-tem Speaker could be considered as one of the discretionary powers of the governor under Article 163, which states that if any question arises for which the governor is required to act in his discretion, his decision shall be final. The validity of anything done by the governor shall not be called into question on the ground that he ought or not to have acted in his discretion. Moreover, if the discretion is exercised with the aid and advice of the chief minister or the council of ministers, it would be difficult to challenge it in a court of law.
The question that now arises is as to what happens in such a situation where eight BJP MLAs have refused to be sworn in by the pro-tem Speaker. According to Article 188 of the Constitution, every member of the legislative assembly shall, before taking his seat, subscribe before the governor or some other person appointed on behalf of him to take an oath according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule.
Article 193 states that if a person sits or votes as a member of the legislative assembly before he has complied with the requirement of Article 188, or when he knows that he is not qualified or that he is disqualified for membership, or that he is prohibited from so doing by the provisions of any law made by Parliament or by a state legislature, he shall be liable to a penalty for each day he so sits or votes. A penalty of Rs 500 daily (which is, of course, a pittance compared to the salary and daily allowance drawn by the MLAs) is to be recovered as a debt due to the state. Apart from the penalty, a member of the legislative assembly is not entitled to any of the privileges of the legislature, including salary and allowances, until and unless he has taken oath.
In the meanwhile, the grapevine has it that the Congress has decided to field Gaddam Prasad Kumar, MLA from Vikarabad, as its candidate for the Speaker’s post. In that case, the ideological objections of the BJP against the appointment of Akbaruddin Owaisi as pro-tem Speaker would abate.