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Unit 8: Constitutional Structure: Legislature

for accusing the government of its acts of commission and omission. No member of the House can Notes
propose a new tax, he can certainly propose a cut. In case a cut motion is carried through, fall of the
government follows. True to say that the Cabinet depends upon the support of majority behind it
and the budget is passed by the House as it decides and desires, but the weight of criticism does not
go in vain and a sensible Prime Minister pays attention to the various ‘crimes’ of the government
highlighted by the fiery critics.
Then, the House has certain judicial powers as well. If a person contempts the privileges of the
House, he may be arrested under a warrant signed by the Speaker and brought before the bar of the
House. It depends upon the House to release him after admonition or award punishment. No judicial
body can sit in judgement over the verdict of the House given in this direction. The House has its
privileges committee to study a matter referred to it and then submit its report to the House for
necessary action.
It is sometimes said that the House of Commons has transferred much of its real power in favour of
the government (Cabinet) and consequently become subservient to the ministers. Samuel H. Finer
holds that its primary function “is to sustain a government; its secondary function is to criticise it.”
That is, the House has hardly any real power beyond the ventilation of grievances. It has no legislative
initiative as hardly any bill moved by a private member has the chance of being adopted until it is
supported by the Cabinet. The House is thus a registering body for passing a bill or a budget or
approving a policy measures presented by the Cabinet. It is, likewise, argued that such a body of
more than six hundred members can neither legislate nor govern; its main task “is still what it was
when it was first summoned; not to legislate, but to secure full discussion and ventilation of all
matters, legislative or administrative, as the condition of its giving assent to Bills whether introduced
by the government or by private members or its support to ministers.
Speaker: The Speaker is the presiding officer of the House of Commons. His designation is derived
from the fact that in the early day of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, only the presiding officer of
the House of Commons — which was then a petitioning and not a law-making body — had the right
to speak on behalf of the House to the monarch. It was this officer who took the petitions and resolutions
of the House to the king and had a talk as the only ‘speaker’ (representative) of the House. Situation
has fundamentally changed now when the House of Commons has become the real Parliament of the
country in which the Speaker speaks very little and whenever he opens his lips, he speaks not to the
House but for the House. On the occasion of his re-election to this office in 1945, Douglas Clifton
Brown said: “As Speaker, I am not the Government’s man, nor the Opposition’s man. I am the House
of Commons’ man’ and, I believe, above all, the back-benchers’ man....as Speaker, I cherish the dignity
of the ‘office very much.”
It follows that the Speaker is a member of the House of Commons and he is elected by it. There is a
very healthy convention that ‘once a Speaker, always a Speaker.’ It implies that the Speakership is a
very exalted office and its holder may continue to occupy it till he likes. When the House of Commons
is dissolved, he still continues to hold his office until the new Speaker is chosen. However, it is
required by a well-established custom that the Speaker returns unopposed as he contests election
from some constituency as a man of no party. His non-political character is his best qualification
entitling him to-seek reelection and return unopposed.
Whenever there is a vacancy due to death or voluntary retirement, the nomination is made by the
leader of the majority party after consultation with the leader of the opposition. Hence, names of
those members are withdrawn where there are objections and, in these conditions, the name of a
backbencher is preferred as he is an unknown or a non-controversial figure. After this formal
nomination, the ceremony of his election in the House of Commons takes place. His name is proposed
by a member and seconded by another and soon the result is out as there is no other name in the field.
After the elections when the new House meets, the name of the same Speaker is preferred and his
election is just a formality. However, the House elects a Deputy Speaker. As another convention has
come up to elevate the Deputy Speaker to the post of the Speaker, it may be said that the formality of
the election has more importance in the case of Deputy Speaker than that of the Speaker. This is
called the tradition of continuity.

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