The Constitution specifies offices like those of the President, Vice President, Chief Justice of India, and Comptroller and Auditor General of India, as well as Speakers and Deputy Speakers.

Article 93 of the Constitution of India provides for Lok Sabha and Article 178 for state Assemblies states that these Houses “shall, as soon as may be”, choose two of its members to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

The Constitution neither sets a time limit nor specifies the process for these elections. It leaves it to the legislatures to decide how to hold these elections. In Lok Sabha and state legislatures, the President/Governor sets a date for the election of the Speaker, and it is the Speaker who decides the date for the election of the Deputy Speaker.

Body

You may incorporate some of the following points in the body of your answer:

Role of Speaker in the robust functioning of parliamentary business in India

The final authority for adopting rules for regulating its procedure rests with each House, but a perusal of the rules of the Indian Parliament would indicate that the Presiding Officers in the two Houses are given vast powers by the rules.

The presiding officer decides:

(i) The admissibility of a Question.

(ii) When a member shall speak and how long he/she shall speak

• If he/she is satisfied, the Speaker can direct a member to withdraw from the House for a specific period of time.
• The Speaker is the guardian of the rights and privileges of the House, its Committees and members. It depends solely on the Speaker to refer any question of privilege to the Committee of Privileges for examination, investigation and report.
• It is the Speaker who decides the form and manner in which the proceedings of the House is published.
• He/She also issues warrants to execute the orders of the House, wherever necessary, and delivers reprimands on behalf of the House.
• When a decision of the House is to be ascertained on a motion made by a member, the question is put by the Speaker before the House to obtain the decision. On questions of points of order, it is he/she who finally decides whether the matter raised is in order or not.
• The Speaker also has certain residuary powers under the Rules of Procedure.
• The Speaker issues from time to time directions which are generally treated as sacrosanct as the Rules of Procedure.
• On matters regarding interpretation of constitutional provisions relating to the House or the Rules of Procedure, he/she often gives rulings which are respected by members and are binding in nature.
• He/She certifies Money Bills and decides finally what are money matters by reason of the Lok Sabha’s overriding powers in financial matters
• The Speaker does not vote in the House except on those rare occasions when there is a tie at the end of a decision.

Conclusion

Your conclusion should be short.

According to the book Practice and Procedure of Parliament, published by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the Speaker is “the principal spokesman of the House, he represents its collective voice and is its sole representative to the outside world”.

The Speaker is the constitutional and ceremonial head of the House. He/She is the principal spokesperson of the House. It is in him/her that the responsibility of conducting the business of the House in a manner befitting the place of the institution in a representative democracy is invested.

Other Important Topics

Other Powers of Speaker