Speaker of Lok Sabha: Powers, Election & Removal

By Dooit UPSC expert · 23 September 2026 · 11 min read

In my three decades of mentoring aspirants, I have seen one truth hold firm: the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is the most examined presiding officer in Indian Polity, and the one candidates understand least. Master Articles 93 to 97 with their small print, and you have locked away a cluster of marks that returns in Prelims and Mains alike.

The Speaker is not merely the person who says "order, order". The office is the living guarantee that the House of the People governs its own business — impartially, predictably, and free of executive interference. Examiners love it precisely because it sits at the crossroads of the Constitution, parliamentary procedure, the anti-defection law and current affairs. Let me take you through it the way I take my classroom through it: article by article, then power by power, and finally through the comparisons and firsts that decide your two marks in the hall.

Constitutional basis: Articles 93 to 97

The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha are creatures of the Constitution, not of any statute. Their entire framework fits into five compact articles, and I want you to be able to recall each one by its number:

• Article 93 — the House of the People "shall, as soon as may be", choose two of its members to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker, and fill any vacancy.
• Article 94 — how the Speaker and Deputy Speaker vacate office, resign, or are removed.
• Article 95 — the Deputy Speaker (or a member chosen for the purpose) performs the Speaker's duties when the office is vacant or the Speaker is absent.
• Article 96 — the Speaker does not preside while a resolution for their own removal is under consideration.
• Article 97 — the salaries and allowances of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India.

To these, add Article 100 (the casting vote) and Article 110 (the Money Bill certificate), and you have the examinable core. Notice how tightly the Constitution ties the office to the House itself — the Speaker is elected by the members, from among the members, and answerable to the members.

Election of the Speaker (Article 93)

After a general election, the newly constituted Lok Sabha elects its Speaker from among its own members. There is no separate qualification beyond being a sitting member of the House; there is no requirement that the Speaker be a lawyer or a procedural expert, though experience helps. The date of election is fixed by the President, and the choice is made by a simple majority of members present and voting.

The Speaker pro tem

Before the new House can elect its Speaker, someone must preside and administer the oath to newly elected members. This is the Speaker pro tem, a temporary appointment. By convention the senior-most member of the House is appointed by the President for this limited purpose, and the office lapses the moment the regular Speaker is chosen. A frequent Prelims trap is to confuse the Speaker pro tem with the Deputy Speaker — they are entirely different offices.

The Deputy Speaker

The Deputy Speaker is elected in the same way and holds office on the same terms, exercising the Speaker's powers when the Speaker's chair is vacant or the Speaker is absent (Article 95). Importantly, the Deputy Speaker is not subordinate to the Speaker; both are answerable to the House. When the Deputy Speaker is appointed as a member of a parliamentary committee, they take precedence over all other members of that committee.

Term of office and the four ways it ends (Article 94)

The Speaker normally holds office for the life of the Lok Sabha, but there is a subtle point that catches many aspirants. The Speaker does not vacate office the instant the Lok Sabha is dissolved. Instead, the Speaker continues until immediately before the first meeting of the newly elected Lok Sabha. This continuity ensures the office is never empty during the interregnum between two Houses.

Under Article 94, the Speaker vacates office in these ways:

1. If they cease to be a member of the Lok Sabha.
2. By resigning in writing addressed to the Deputy Speaker.
3. By being removed through a resolution passed by a majority of all the then members of the House.

Read the resignation route carefully: the Speaker resigns to the Deputy Speaker, and the Deputy Speaker resigns to the Speaker. This mutual arrangement is a favourite one-mark question.

The removal procedure in detail

The removal of the Speaker is deliberately made difficult, because the office must be secure to be independent. Three safeguards operate together:

• Notice: a minimum of 14 days' advance notice of the intention to move the removal resolution is mandatory.
• Majority: the resolution must be passed by a majority of all the then members of the House — that is, an effective or absolute majority, not merely a majority of those present and voting.
• Presiding: under Article 96, the Speaker does not preside while such a resolution is under consideration; the Deputy Speaker (or another member) takes the chair. The Speaker may still speak in the House and take part in the proceedings, and may vote in the first instance on such a resolution — but crucially cannot exercise the casting vote in this situation.

Powers and functions of the Speaker

The Speaker's authority runs far wider than maintaining decorum. I group the functions under a simple mental map for my students — presiding, deciding, disciplining and representing — and this table captures the exam-relevant ones:

The casting vote (Article 100)

This is the single most elegant safeguard of neutrality in the Constitution. In ordinary voting the Speaker stays out, so that no one can accuse the chair of partisanship. Only when the House is exactly divided does the Speaker step in with a casting vote to resolve the deadlock. It is a rarely used power, but a certain one — write it in your notes as "silent unless tied".

Deciding what is a Money Bill (Article 110)

Of all the Speaker's powers, this is the most politically weighty. A Money Bill can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha and effectively bypasses the Rajya Sabha, which can only make recommendations that the Lok Sabha may accept or reject. Because the Speaker's certificate under Article 110 is final, the Speaker's characterisation of a bill can decide how much say the Upper House has over it. Link this straight to your notes on the Money Bill and the difference between it and an ordinary financial bill — the examiners love to test that boundary.

The anti-defection role

Under the Tenth Schedule, questions of disqualification of members on the ground of defection are decided by the Speaker (or Chairman, in the Rajya Sabha). In the landmark Kihoto Hollohan case (1992), the Supreme Court held that while the Speaker acts as a tribunal in these matters, that decision is subject to judicial review. So the Speaker's ruling on defection is not the last word — the courts can examine it. If you want the fuller picture of this law, read our dedicated explainer on the anti-defection law and the Tenth Schedule.

What keeps the office independent

The framers wove several threads of independence into the office, and you should be able to list them crisply in a Mains answer:

• Security of tenure: the Speaker can be removed only by an effective majority after 14 days' notice, not on the executive's whim.
• Salary charged on the Consolidated Fund (Article 97): the Speaker's salary is not subject to the annual vote of Parliament, so it cannot be used as a lever of pressure.
• Final authority over procedure: the Speaker's decisions on the interpretation of the Rules of Procedure and on points of order are generally not open to challenge in the House or the courts.
• Above party in the chair: though the Speaker is elected from a party, the healthy expectation is impartiality; in the British model the Speaker even severs party ties, a convention India has adopted only loosely.

Speaker of Lok Sabha vs Chairman of Rajya Sabha

Comparisons are where careless candidates lose marks. The two presiding officers look similar but differ in origin and powers. Keep this table at your fingertips:

The cleanest way to remember it: the Speaker is the House's own choice, while the Chairman is borrowed from outside as the Vice-President. That single idea explains most of the differences in the table. For the wider picture of how these two Houses work together, see our overview of the Parliament of India.

Firsts and facts worth memorising

A handful of factual pegs regularly appear in Prelims. Lodge these firmly:

• G. V. Mavalankar was the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, and is honoured as the "Father of the Lok Sabha".
• M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar was the first Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
• The office is modelled on the British House of Commons, from which India borrowed the parliamentary system.
• The Speaker continues in office even after the Lok Sabha is dissolved, until just before the first sitting of the next House.

How to prepare this topic for the exam

Aspirants routinely over-read this topic and under-retain it. Here is the study routine I have recommended for years, and it works:

1. Anchor to the articles first. Learn 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 100 and 110 as a chain before you touch any commentary. If you cannot recall which article deals with removal, no amount of reading around it will save you in the hall.
2. Convert the comparison into a one-page chart. The Speaker-versus-Chairman table above should live on your revision wall. Comparisons decay fast in memory, so revisit them weekly.
3. Practise application questions. Take a scenario — say, a Money Bill dispute or a defection ruling — and reason through what the Speaker can and cannot do. This is exactly how UPSC frames its harder Prelims statements.
4. Link to current affairs. Every time a real controversy touches the Speaker's role — a contested defection case, a debate over a Money Bill — connect it to these articles in your notes. Static and dynamic must travel together.

Do this, and the Speaker stops being a scatter of half-remembered facts and becomes a small, secure block of marks you can rely on. That reliability, built topic by topic, is what actually clears this examination.