The Speaker or the Deputy Speaker not to preside while a resolution for his removal from office is under consideration.—(1) At any sitting of the Legislative Assembly, while any resolution for the removal of the Speaker from his office is under consideration, the Speaker, or while any resolution for the removal of the Deputy Speaker from his office is under consideration, the Deputy Speaker, shall not, though he is present, preside, and the provisions of clause (2) of article 180 shall apply in relation to every such sitting as they apply in relation to a sitting from which the Speaker or, as the case may be, the Deputy Speaker, is absent. (2) The Speaker shall have the right to speak in, and otherwise to take part in the proceedings of, the Legislative Assembly while any resolution for his removal from office is under consideration in the Assembly and shall, notwithstanding anything in article 189, be entitled to vote only in the first instance on such resolution or on any other matter during such proceedings but not in the case of an equality of votes. During the discussion in the Constituent Assembly on 2 June, 1949 on draft article 158, Jaspat Roy Kapoor moved an amendment that after article 158, the following new article be inserted: “158-A. At any sitting of the Legislative Assembly of a State, while any resolution for the removal of the Speaker from his office is under consideration, the Speaker, or while any resolution for the removal of the Deputy Speaker from his office is under consideration, the Deputy Speaker, shall not though he is present preside and the provisions of clause (2) of the next succeeding article shall apply in relation to every such sitting as they apply in relation to a sitting from which the Speaker or, as the case may be, the Deputy Speaker is absent.” Another amendment was moved to the amendment proposed above which required only that the location of the new article should be after 159 and not after 158. Draft article 159A was adopted without any debate. At the revision stage, it was renumbered as article 181 of the Constitution. A resolution for the removal of Speaker becomes operative when a notice of motion for the removal of the Speaker is given and is taken up for consideration. For instance, when such a resolution comes up for consideration there is a deemed vacancy under the provisions of the Constitution and the Speaker even though he is physically present is said to be constitutionally absent and cannot therefore be the Presiding Officer of the Assembly from that moment.
