MPSC 2021 Prelims Paper-I · Question 85 of 100

Correct — option (3), Only (c). Read the closing line before anything else: it asks which statements are CORRECT, and the word is printed in bold in both the English and the Marathi columns. Only three statements are printed here, (a) to (c), and exactly one of them survives scrutiny. Statement (c) is true. Article 118(4) provides that the Speaker of the House of the People, or in his absence such person as may be determined by the rules of procedure of that House, shall preside over a joint sitting of the two Houses. This is a genuine constitutional peculiarity and the reason the statement is here: at a joint sitting summoned by the President under Article 108 to resolve a deadlock over an ordinary bill, the presiding officer is the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and not the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, so the head of the lower House presides over the members of both. India has held three such sittings — on the Dowry Prohibition Bill in 1961, the Banking Service Commission (Repeal) Bill in 1978 and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill in 2002 — and none of them concerned a money bill or a constitutional amendment bill, for which no joint sitting is available. Statement (a) is false. The Speaker does not hold office during the pleasure of the President; that expression belongs to a Minister under Article 75(2), to the Attorney-General under Article 76(4) and to a Governor under Article 156(1), none of whom the Speaker resembles. Under Article 94 he vacates office if he ceases to be a member of the House, may resign by writing addressed to the Deputy Speaker, and may be removed only by a resolution of the House of the People passed by a majority of all the then members of the House, of which fourteen days' notice must be given. Statement (b) is false as well, and its negative wording — 'He need not be a member' — is part of a statement and not the question's own ask. Article 93 requires the House of the People, as soon as may be, to choose two MEMBERS of the House to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker, so membership is a precondition of election, not something acquired afterwards. With (a) and (b) out and (c) in, option (3) is the only possible answer.

• (1)Only (a) — This choice keeps statement (a) and discards the one true statement. The doctrine of holding office 'during the pleasure of the President' is real, but it attaches to officers who are part of the executive or are appointed by it — a Minister of the Union under Article 75(2), the Attorney-General for India under Article 76(4), a Governor of a State under Article 156(1). The Speaker belongs to the legislature and is protected from the executive precisely so that he can preside over it impartially. Article 94 sets out the only three ways his office ends: he ceases to be a member of the House, he resigns in writing to the Deputy Speaker, or the House removes him by a resolution passed by a majority of all the then members after fourteen days' notice. The President has no part in any of the three, and a Speaker even continues in office after the House is dissolved, until immediately before the first sitting of the next House.
• (2)(a) and (b) — This choice takes both of the false statements and leaves out the true one, so it is wrong twice over. Statement (a) confuses the Speaker with the officers who serve at the President's pleasure; statement (b) confuses him with the Chairman of the Council of States. The second confusion is the more interesting, because it is exactly right about the other House: the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha is the Vice-President of India, who is elected by an electoral college of the members of both Houses and is NOT a member of the House he presides over. The Lok Sabha works on the opposite principle. Article 93 directs the House to choose two of its own members as Speaker and Deputy Speaker, so a person must already be a member of the House of the People before he can be elected to the Chair, and losing that membership costs him the office.
• (4)(b) and (c) — This is the trap that catches a well-prepared candidate, because half of it is right. Statement (c) about presiding over a joint sitting is correct, and a candidate who verifies it and then does not test statement (b) with the same care will take this choice. But statement (b) fails on the plain words of Article 93, which requires the House of the People to choose two MEMBERS of the House as Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Its plausibility comes from an analogy the Constitution does not draw: the presiding officer of the upper House is an outsider to it, so a candidate reasons that presiding officers in general need not be members. The lesson generalises well beyond this question — in a statement set, a statement that is true is never a reason to accept the ones printed beside it, and each has to be tested against its own provision.

The Speaker of the House of the People is created by Article 93 and governed by Articles 94 to 96 and 100. Article 93 requires the House, as soon as may be, to choose two of its members as Speaker and Deputy Speaker, and to fill either office when it becomes vacant. Article 94 provides that either of them vacates office on ceasing to be a member of the House, may resign in writing addressed to the other, and may be removed by a resolution of the House passed by a majority of all the then members after fourteen days' notice; a proviso keeps the Speaker in office after a dissolution until immediately before the first meeting of the new House, so that the office is never vacant. Article 95 allows the Deputy Speaker, or a member appointed under the rules, to perform the Speaker's duties when the office is vacant or the Speaker is absent. Article 96 keeps the Speaker out of the Chair while a resolution for his own removal is under consideration, though he may speak and take part and may vote in the first instance, but not in the event of an equality of votes. Article 100 gives him no ordinary vote but a casting vote when the House is equally divided. Beyond these, Article 110(3) makes his certificate that a bill is a money bill final, Article 118(4) puts him in the Chair at a joint sitting, and the Tenth Schedule makes him the authority to decide questions of disqualification on the ground of defection in his House. His salary and allowances are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India, which places them beyond the annual vote of the House and is another guarantee of his independence.

Statement-based questions on the presiding officers are a fixture in MPSC's polity section, and they are built almost entirely out of the differences between the two Houses and between the Speaker and other constitutional functionaries. The Commission's raw material is therefore a short list of contrasts: the Speaker is a member of his House and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha is not; the Speaker is removed by his own House and a Minister is dismissed at the President's pleasure; the Speaker presides at a joint sitting while the Chairman does not; the Speaker has a casting vote but no ordinary vote. A candidate who has those contrasts written out will find that most statement sets on this topic are assembled from them by simply moving a phrase from one office to another, which is exactly what statements (a) and (b) do here. The second habit this item rewards is reading to the end of the question. Everything after the stem's opening line is statements, and the actual ask — whether the correct statements are wanted or the incorrect ones — arrives only in the closing line, in bold. This paper contains seven questions whose stems are negative, so the closing line has to be read, not assumed. Note too that a negation inside a statement, as in statement (b) here, is not a negative question; it is simply part of the proposition being tested.

• Article 93 requires the House of the People to choose two MEMBERS of the House to be its Speaker and Deputy Speaker, so a person must already be a member before he can be elected to the Chair.
• Article 94 provides the only ways the office ends — ceasing to be a member of the House, resignation in writing addressed to the Deputy Speaker, or removal by a resolution of the House passed by a majority of all the then members after fourteen days' notice. The Speaker does not hold office during the President's pleasure.
• A Speaker continues in office even after the House is dissolved, until immediately before the first meeting of the House that follows, so that the office is never left vacant.
• Article 118(4) puts the Speaker of the House of the People in the Chair at a joint sitting of the two Houses; India has held three, on the Dowry Prohibition Bill in 1961, the Banking Service Commission (Repeal) Bill in 1978 and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill in 2002.
• The Chairman of the Council of States is the Vice-President of India, who is not a member of that House — the contrast on which statement (b) of this question is built. Under Article 100 the Speaker has no ordinary vote but exercises a casting vote in the case of an equality of votes.

• Reading only the opening line of a statement question. The ask arrives in the closing line, and in this paper it is sometimes 'correct' and sometimes 'incorrect'. It is bold in both columns here, but the paper does not apply that emphasis consistently across its seven negative stems, so the closing line must be read rather than spotted
• Treating a negation inside a statement, such as 'He need not be a member', as though it made the question itself a negative one. It does not; it is part of the proposition being tested
• Transferring 'holds office during the pleasure of the President' from Ministers, the Attorney-General and Governors to the Speaker, who is protected from the executive by Article 94
• Applying the Rajya Sabha rule to the Lok Sabha. The Chairman of the upper House is not a member of it; the Speaker of the lower House must be
• Accepting a whole option because one statement in it is verified. Here statement (c) is true and still appears in a wrong choice alongside a false statement

Presiding officers appear in MPSC papers in two reliable forms. The first is the statement set, as here, in which two or three propositions are offered and the candidate must judge each; the propositions are usually manufactured by taking a rule that is true of one office and attaching it to another, so the defence is to know the contrasts rather than the offices in isolation. The second is the direct provision question — under which Article is the Speaker elected, who presides at a joint sitting, what majority removes a Speaker, how much notice is required — where the answer is a number and no reasoning helps. Both forms are covered by one page listing Articles 93 to 96, 100, 108, 110(3) and 118(4) beside their Rajya Sabha counterparts, and by remembering the small set of practical facts that go with them: fourteen days' notice, a majority of all the then members, three joint sittings in the history of the Republic, and a salary charged on the Consolidated Fund of India.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who presides over a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament summoned under Article 108 of the Constitution ?

  • (a)The President of India
  • (b)The Chairman of the Council of States
  • (c)The Speaker of the House of the People
  • (d)The senior-most member of the Council of States

  Answer(c) The Speaker of the House of the People. Article 118(4) provides that the Speaker, or in his absence such person as may be determined by the rules of procedure of that House, shall preside over a joint sitting. The President summons the sitting but does not preside; the Chairman of the Council of States has no role in it. Only three joint sittings have been held — on the Dowry Prohibition Bill in 1961, the Banking Service Commission (Repeal) Bill in 1978 and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill in 2002 — and the device is not available for money bills or for bills to amend the Constitution.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Speaker of the House of the People may be removed from office by which of the following ?

  • (a)The President, on the advice of the Council of Ministers
  • (b)A resolution of the House of the People passed by a majority of all the then members of the House
  • (c)A resolution of either House of Parliament passed by a two-thirds majority
  • (d)An order of the Supreme Court on a reference by the President

  Answer(b) A resolution of the House of the People passed by a majority of all the then members of the House. Article 94 requires fourteen days' notice of the intention to move such a resolution, and Article 96 keeps the Speaker out of the Chair while it is under consideration, though he may speak and take part in the proceedings and may vote in the first instance but not in the event of an equality of votes. He also vacates office on ceasing to be a member of the House, or by resigning in writing addressed to the Deputy Speaker; the President has no power over his tenure.