CDS (II) 2022 General Knowledge · Question 41 of 120

Correct — D, 4. All four names in the list held the Chair of the Lok Sabha, spread across four decades. M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar took over in March 1956 on the death of G. V. Mavalankar, the first Speaker, and continued through the second Lok Sabha until 1962. Gurdial Singh Dhillon was Speaker from August 1969 and through the fifth Lok Sabha until December 1975. Balram Jakhar served from January 1980 to December 1989 — two full terms, across the seventh and eighth Lok Sabhas, which no other Speaker has completed. P. A. Sangma was Speaker of the eleventh Lok Sabha from May 1996 to March 1998. A candidate who recognises even three of the four and cannot place the fourth is still safest choosing four here, because the list is drawn deliberately from different decades and different parts of the country, which is the shape of a question that wants all of them.

• (a)1 — Far too few. All four served, and at least two of the names — Jakhar and Sangma — are among the better-remembered occupants of the Chair.
• (b)2 — The answer a candidate lands on by recognising only the two most recent names. Ayyangar and Dhillon are the ones likely to be missed, and both were Speakers.
• (c)3 — The most tempting wrong answer, because it needs only one doubt. The name most often doubted is Ayyangar, who is remembered as the man who stepped into Mavalankar's place rather than as a Speaker in his own right — but he held the office for six years.

The Speaker presides over the Lok Sabha under Article 93, which requires the House to choose two of its members as Speaker and Deputy Speaker as soon as may be. The office carries powers that decide the working of Parliament — certifying a Bill as a Money Bill under Article 110, deciding questions of disqualification on the ground of defection under the Tenth Schedule, deciding on a casting vote when the House is tied, appointing the chairpersons of parliamentary committees including the Public Accounts Committee, and adjourning the House. The Speaker may be removed only by a resolution passed by a majority of all the then members of the House, after fourteen days' notice, and under Article 94 continues in office after the House is dissolved until immediately before the first sitting of the next Lok Sabha.

A how-many item is a different animal from a which-one item: you are not asked to identify anybody, only to count, and the safe method is to look for a name you can positively rule out rather than to confirm all four. Here there is none. The four are drawn from Andhra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Meghalaya and from the 1950s, the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s, and a list assembled that evenly is almost always a list where the answer is all of them. Two of the four are worth a sentence of their own. Balram Jakhar is the only Speaker to have completed two full terms in the Chair. P. A. Sangma remains the only Speaker so far from the North-East, and his tenure fell in the short-lived eleventh Lok Sabha. As of the present day the office is held by Om Birla, who was elected in June 2019 and again in June 2024.

• M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar was Speaker from March 1956 to March 1962, taking over on the death of the first Speaker, G. V. Mavalankar.
• Gurdial Singh Dhillon was Speaker from August 1969 to December 1975.
• Balram Jakhar was Speaker from January 1980 to December 1989 — the only Speaker to complete two full terms.
• P. A. Sangma was Speaker of the eleventh Lok Sabha from May 1996 to March 1998, and remains the only Speaker from the North-East.
• Article 93 provides for the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker; Article 94 lets the Speaker continue in office until immediately before the first sitting of the next House.
• The Speaker certifies Money Bills under Article 110 and decides defection cases under the Tenth Schedule.

• Assuming a name you do not recognise cannot have held the office; counting questions punish exactly that.
• Confusing the Speaker with the Deputy Speaker, or with the Leader of the House.
• Forgetting that a Speaker continues in office after dissolution until just before the first sitting of the new House.

As a how-many counting item on office-holders, or as a match list pairing Speakers with the Lok Sabha they presided over.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The first Speaker of the Lok Sabha was

  • (a)M. A. Ayyangar
  • (b)G. V. Mavalankar
  • (c)Hukam Singh
  • (d)N. Sanjiva Reddy

  Answer(b) G. V. Mavalankar — on whose death in 1956 M. A. Ayyangar took over the Chair.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under which Article of the Constitution does the Speaker of the Lok Sabha continue in office after the dissolution of the House until immediately before the first sitting of the next House?

  • (a)Article 93
  • (b)Article 94
  • (c)Article 100
  • (d)Article 110

  Answer(b) Article 94 — Article 93 provides for the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, and Article 110 deals with Money Bills.