Discuss the role of Presiding Officers of state legislatures in maintaining order and impartiality in conducting legislative work and in facilitating best democratic practices.

Order in legislative work

• The Presiding Officer admits questions, motions, and points of order, and interprets the Rules of Procedure of the House.
• He or she names members, suspends them, and can order the gallery to be cleared, which is the ordinary power to keep debate possible.
• Money bills and the Governor’s messages are read through the Chair, so financial business depends on a working Speaker, not only on the treasury benches.
• Committees are nominated or constituted with the Chair’s involvement; disorder on the floor often follows if committee scrutiny is skipped.

Impartiality

• Article 189 and the Tenth Schedule place the Speaker at the centre of defection disputes inside the Assembly, which is the sharpest test of impartiality.
• Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachillhu (1992) upheld the Tenth Schedule but made the Speaker’s order on defection subject to judicial review on limited grounds.
• Nabam Rebia v. Deputy Speaker, Arunachal Pradesh (2016) held that a Speaker facing a notice for his own removal cannot disqualify members in a way that decides the majority; the Court later revisited parts of this line in 2023 in Subhash Desai, but the democratic point remains that the Chair cannot be a faction tool.
• Resignation, swearing-in, and recognition of the Leader of the Opposition all pass through the Chair and can manufacture or deny a floor majority.

Democratic practices

• A Presiding Officer who gives the opposition a fair share of Question Hour, calling attention, and adjournment motions makes the House a forum, not a rally.
• Live proceedings, reasoned rulings, and restraint in using the marshal are democratic practices that no Article lists in detail but that every Assembly needs.
• Resignation from the ruling party after election as Speaker, as some Assemblies have practised, is a convention that supports impartiality even though the Constitution does not require it.

Recommendations

• Fix a time limit for Tenth Schedule decisions, as the Supreme Court has pressed, so that defection orders are not delayed until the term ends.
• Separate, as far as rules allow, the Speaker’s administrative majority from the treasury whip on ordinary legislative business.
• Train new Speakers in comparative rulings and publish them, so impartiality is a recorded practice, not a personal virtue.