Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Discussion on the no-motion confidence against Lok Sabha Speaker is likely to take place on March 9, news agency ANI reported citing sources.This comes after opposition parties put in motion the process to oust Om Birla as Lok Sabha speaker, alleging that he had acted in a “blatantly partisan” manner in the House and prompting him to step aside from chairing the proceedings till the matter is settled.Meanwhile, Lok Sabha secretariat officials said that Birla has decided not to sit in the Speaker’s chair until the no-confidence motion moved against him is settled.In its motion, opposition also accused the speaker of making certain false claims against the Congress members when he spoke of some “unexpected action” in the Lok Sabha and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to come to the House to reply to the debate in the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address.Article 94C of the Constitution deals with provisions for the removal of the speaker or the deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha.Article 96 of the Constitution gives the speaker an opportunity to defend himself or herself in the House.The speaker can cast his vote when the motion for his removal is moved in the House. But he cannot cast his vote in case of a tie.The Lok Sabha has been witnessing disruptions since February 2, after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disallowed by the chair from quoting from an article based on excerpts of former Army chief M M Naravane’s “unpublished memoir”, which has references to the India-China conflict of 2020.On February 4, Prime Minister Modi could not reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks due to opposition protests. In an unprecedented move, the Motion of Thanks was passed on February 5 without the customary speech by the prime minister. The speaker read out the Motion of Thanks to the President for her address, and it was passed by a voice vote amid sloganeering by opposition members.Birla said he received concrete information that many Congress MPs could carry out an “unexpected act” by reaching the spot where PM Modi sits and, therefore, he asked him not to come to the House to deliver his address.
