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Covid 19 lockdown fallout: Bihar legislative council to become headless on May 7
The post of the chairman of the legislative council in Bihar has fallen vacant twice in the past.
Come May 7 and the Bihar legislative council will become headless since the position of the chairman of the council will fall vacant with the working chairman Haroon Rashid’s six-year term ending a day earlier, on May 6.
This is the third time, when there will be no chairman or deputy chairman to reconvene the upper house of the state legislature. The house was adjourned sine die on March 16 due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, much ahead of its scheduled adjournment on April 4.
“As the house is not in session, it can’t elect its leader as of now,” said a Patna high court lawyer, YB Giri.
The complications deepened when the Election Commission of India (ECI) deferred the biennial elections to the house for 17 seats, which were due to be filled by May 7, owing to the pandemic and subsequent lockdown.
Noted constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap said that there would be no chairman of the council, as there is no established convention to guide the state legislature to tide over such an impasse.
“The post has remained vacant in the past twice. Unlike the case of the chief minister or a minister, who can continue in their position for a period of six months without being a member of either house, one has to be a member of the house before being elected as the chairman or the speaker,” said Kashyap.
Rashid, who is heading the council as the acting chairman for the past two years after his predecessor Awadhesh Narayan Singh’s term expired, said he would demit the office once his term expired. “It is now up to the ECI to set the election process in motion,” he said.
A senior officer of the council claimed that there was still a chance to retain Rashid as the working chairman by nominating him to any of the two seats vacated by Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh and Pasupati Kumar Paswan, both of whom got elected to the Lok Sabha. “The term of the two seats will expire on May 27. Before the expiry of the term, Rashid may be reelected or nominated again,” the official quoted above said.
Officials said there would not be any significant impact on the functioning of the legislative council in the absence of a chairman or a deputy chairman.
In case of an emergency, the governor may nominate any member as the working chairman for the purpose of convening the house following which the house could elect a chairman with due process.
The post of the chairman of the legislative council has remained unoccupied for a total of 30 days in the past since it was established 83 years ago—between May 7- June3 in 1980 and January 13 to January 17 in 1987.
