Which of the following statements is NOT true about the Speaker of the Lok Sabha?
- (a)The Speaker has to be a member of the House within six months of assuming office.
- (b)He remains Speaker so long as he is a member of the House.
- (c)The Speaker continues in office even if the Lok Sabha is dissolved.
- (d)The Speaker can be removed by the members of the Lok Sabha.
Correct — A, The Speaker has to be a member of the House within six months of assuming office..
Article 93 directs the Lok Sabha to choose its Speaker from among its own members. Membership comes first; the office is conferred on someone who already holds a seat. So The Speaker has to be a member of the House within six months of assuming office is the statement that is not true.
The six-month window is real, but it belongs to a different office. Article 75(5) lets a person serve as a Union minister for up to six consecutive months without a seat in either House. The statement transplants that grace period onto the Speaker.
Carry this away: the Speaker is elected by the House from its sitting members, and the six-month grace is a ministers' rule under Article 75(5).
- (b)He remains Speaker so long as he is a member of the House. — This statement is true, so it cannot be the answer to a 'NOT true' question. It is the general rule implied by Article 94(a): the Speaker vacates office if he ceases to be a member of the Lok Sabha. His tenure is tethered to his seat.
Resignation under Article 94(b) and removal under Article 94(c) are further exits, and the dissolution proviso is the one express carve-out, covered under option (c). The tether to membership remains the general rule.
- (c)The Speaker continues in office even if the Lok Sabha is dissolved. — True, by the proviso to Article 94: whenever the Lok Sabha is dissolved, the Speaker shall not vacate his office until immediately before the first meeting of the House after the dissolution. Dissolution ends the House, yet the Speaker stays on through the interval.
The proviso names the Speaker, not the Deputy Speaker, so at the new House's first meeting his office falls vacant.
Article 95(1) then gives the duties to the Deputy Speaker; after a dissolution that office is vacant too, so the President appoints a member to act as Speaker pro tem until the House elects its Speaker.
- (d)The Speaker can be removed by the members of the Lok Sabha. — True, by Article 94(c): the Speaker may be removed by a resolution of the Lok Sabha passed by a majority of all the then members of the House, and the resolution needs at least fourteen days' notice before it is moved.
Article 96 adds the safeguards: he does not preside while the resolution is under consideration, but he may speak, take part and vote in the first instance. The casting vote is withheld on that occasion.
The Speaker of the Lok Sabha is its presiding officer, chosen by the House from among its members under Article 93. Articles 94 to 96 set out how the office is vacated, how the Speaker resigns or is removed, and how he is protected while a removal resolution is pending.
Article 94 gives three routes out of the office: ceasing to be a member, resigning in writing to the Deputy Speaker, and removal by a resolution passed by a majority of all the then members after fourteen days' notice.
Its proviso keeps the Speaker in place after dissolution until just before the new House first meets.
The office sits in Part V, Chapter II of the Constitution, next to the Deputy Speaker (Article 93) and the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Articles 89 to 92).
Articles 178 to 181 replicate the scheme for a State Legislative Assembly, so the same tenure rules govern the Speaker of the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha.
The tenure rules are easiest to hold against their neighbours. A minister may serve six months without a seat (Article 75(5)) and holds office during the President's pleasure (Article 75(2)); the Speaker's tenure rests instead on his membership and on the confidence of the House that elected him.
- Article 93: the Lok Sabha, as soon as may be, chooses two of its members to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
- Article 94(a): the Speaker vacates office if he ceases to be a member of the Lok Sabha.
- Article 94(b): the Speaker resigns by writing to the Deputy Speaker; the Deputy Speaker resigns by writing to the Speaker.
- Article 94(c): removal needs a resolution of the Lok Sabha passed by a majority of all the then members, moved after at least fourteen days' notice.
- Proviso to Article 94: after dissolution the Speaker stays in office until immediately before the first meeting of the new Lok Sabha.
- Article 95(1): in a vacancy the Deputy Speaker acts; if that office is also vacant, a member appointed by the President acts as Speaker pro tem.
- Article 96: the Speaker does not preside while a resolution for his removal is under consideration, but may speak and vote in the first instance.
- Article 75(5): a Union minister who is not a member of either House for six consecutive months ceases to be a minister; Article 164(4) mirrors this for States.
- Article 100(1): the Speaker does not vote in the first instance but exercises a casting vote when votes are equal.
- Rule 7 of the Lok Sabha Rules of Procedure: the election of the Speaker is held on a date fixed by the President.
- Articles 178 to 181 apply the same election, vacation, resignation and removal scheme to the Speaker of a State Legislative Assembly.
- 2024 illustration: Om Birla continued as Speaker after the 17th Lok Sabha was dissolved, until the 18th first met on 24 June; he was re-elected Speaker on 26 June.
The six-month grace in option (a) is a ministers' rule; the Speaker must already hold a seat when the House chooses him.
- Carrying Article 75(5)'s six-month grace across to the Speaker: that grace lets a non-member serve as minister; the Speaker is chosen from sitting members.
- Treating dissolution as the end of the Speakership: the proviso to Article 94 keeps the Speaker in office until immediately before the new House first meets.
- Addressing the Speaker's resignation to the President: Article 94(b) sends it to the Deputy Speaker.
- Upgrading the removal majority to two-thirds: Article 94(c) needs a majority of all the then members, plus fourteen days' notice.
- Applying 'holds office during the pleasure of the President', a ministers' rule under Article 75(2), to the Speaker, whose tenure is tied to membership and to the House's resolution.
The Speaker's tenure is tested as a four-statement 'NOT true' or 'not correct' pick, where three statements paraphrase clauses of Article 94 and the odd one out borrows a rule from a neighbouring office: a minister's six-month grace, a resignation to the President, or tenure at the President's pleasure.
Each of those points can sit inside such a list as a single statement: a 2022 CDS General Knowledge paper set resignation addressed to the President among four statements about the Speaker as the one that is not correct.
CDS_GK_2022_I_Q902022Same device and same ground: a 'not correct' pick among four statements drawn from Articles 94 and 95 (vacating on loss of membership, removal by a majority of all the then members, the Deputy Speaker acting in a vacancy). The odd one out there is resignation addressed to the President, which actually goes to the Deputy Speaker; here it is the six-month membership window.
HPSC_2021_MAINS_GSI_Q572021A Mains-paper mirror image: rather than the odd statement out, it asks which statement about the Speaker IS correct, with tenure at the President's pleasure and resignation to the President among the options. The ground is the same, Articles 93 to 96 read clause by clause, but it is set at state-PCS Mains level rather than Prelims.
NDA_GAT_2021_I_Q1392021Same office, different article: it asks which is not a power of the Speaker, and the answer is the first-instance vote, since Article 100(1) gives the Speaker a casting vote in a tie rather than an ordinary vote. Tenure under Article 94 is untouched there; the shared lesson is to read the Speaker's rules from the article itself.
UPPSC_2024_PRE_GSI_Q242024Approaches the same fact from the Election Commission's side: conducting the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker is outside the Commission's functions because the House chooses them itself under Article 93. It tests the Commission's mandate, not the Speaker's tenure.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following statements about the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is correct?
- (a)He must already be a member of the Lok Sabha when the House chooses him.
- (b)He may be chosen from either House of Parliament.
- (c)He may be a non-member, provided he is elected to the House within six months.
- (d)He is appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister.
Answera — Article 93 requires the Lok Sabha to choose two of its members to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker, so membership precedes election.(b) fails because Article 93 confines the choice to members of the House of the People; a Rajya Sabha member is outside it. (c) is the six-month grace of Article 75(5), which is written for ministers.
(d) describes how ministers are appointed under Article 75(1); the Speaker is chosen by the House, the President's role being to fix the date of the election.
- practice — not a real PYQ
To whom does the Speaker of the Lok Sabha address his letter of resignation?
- (a)The President of India
- (b)The Prime Minister
- (c)The Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha
- (d)The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha
Answerc — Article 94(b): the Speaker may resign by writing under his hand addressed to the Deputy Speaker, and the Deputy Speaker by writing addressed to the Speaker.(a) is where a Union minister, or the Vice-President under Article 67(a), sends a resignation. (b) the Prime Minister heads the Council of Ministers, a body the Speaker stands outside. (d) the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha receives the Deputy Chairman's resignation under Article 90(b), not the Speaker's.
- practice — not a real PYQ
A resolution to remove the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from office must be:
- (a)passed by a majority of all the then members of the Lok Sabha, after at least fourteen days' notice of the intention to move it
- (b)passed by a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting
- (c)passed by a simple majority of members present and voting, the Speaker exercising a casting vote in a tie
- (d)passed by both Houses of Parliament and assented to by the President
Answera — Article 94(c) fixes the majority as a majority of all the then members of the House, and its proviso requires at least fourteen days' notice before the resolution is moved.(b) borrows the two-thirds threshold used for constitutional amendments (Article 368) and for removing judges (Article 124(4)). (c) is wrong twice: the majority is of the then membership, and Article 96(2) lets the Speaker vote on the resolution in the first instance but withholds the casting vote.
(d) is a bill's route; the removal is a single-House resolution.
- practice — not a real PYQ
When the Lok Sabha is dissolved, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha:
- (a)vacates office on the date of dissolution, like the other members
- (b)continues in office until immediately before the first meeting of the newly elected Lok Sabha
- (c)continues in office until the newly elected Lok Sabha chooses its Speaker
- (d)continues in office at the pleasure of the President until a new Council of Ministers is sworn in
Answerb — the proviso to Article 94 says the Speaker shall not vacate his office until immediately before the first meeting of the House after the dissolution.(a) contradicts that proviso. (c) runs the tenure too long: the office falls vacant just before the first meeting, a Speaker pro tem appointed under Article 95(1) presides, and the new Speaker is chosen afterwards.
(d) imports the President's-pleasure tenure of ministers (Article 75(2)); the Speaker's continuation is fixed by the proviso, with the new House's first meeting as its end point.