SC Issues Notice On Plea To Fill Vacant Post of Deputy Speaker in Lok Sabha, State Assemblies
Article 93 of the Constitution states that the House of the People shall, as soon as may be, choose two members of the House to be respectively Speaker and Deputy Speaker thereof.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice in the pleas pertaining to the post of deputy speaker lying vacant in the Lok Sabha as well as the state assemblies of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, and Manipur.
Senior Advocate Vibha Datta Makhija, appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted before court that contrary to Article 93 and 178, no deputy speaker had been elected.
On hearing this, CJI Chandrachud remarked, "Article 93 mandates that the post of Speaker and Deputy Speaker must be filled within six months. Please call for the AG."
Let the Attorney General come, Court said when the petitioners wanted to make further submissions on the issue.
After some time, when the court was informed that the AG was unavailable, the bench said that it would issue notice to the Union of India.
"We request the learned AG to assist the court. List after two weeks", thus ordered the bench also consisting of Justices Narasimha and Pardiwala.
Notably, court refused to take down the instance of Manipur at the moment and enlisted only four states in its order.
Case Title: Shariq Ahmed vs. UoI And Ors