Indian Congress Moves No-Confidence Motion Against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla

The Congress submitted a no-confidence motion notice against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday — levelling accusations of “blatantly partisan” conduct in the House. The move is reminiscent of a strike against former Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar in December 2024 that was rejected for lacking a mandatory 14-day notice and misspelling his name. The Opposition cited multiple grievances from the ongoing Budget Session and claimed that Birla had abused the constitutional office by making “blatantly false” allegations against Congress MPs. Congress sources told news agency ANI that a total of 118 MPs had signed the notice of no-confidence motion against Birla. The motion was submitted on Tuesday afternoon “under rule 94C rules and procedures”. The Speaker has since directed the House Secretary-General to examine the no-confidence motion notice against him and take appropriate action. A no-confidence motion can only pass when certain conditions are met — beyond the obvious need for a majority vote. The document was initially flagged for technical errors (reminiscent of the Dhankhar spelling gaffe) after insisting that the issues in question took place last year in February 2025. Resubmission took place on Tuesday with the correct date but it can still be rejected or deprioritised for urgent session items like the Budget. It is also pertinent to note that bids to remove the Lok Sabha Speaker have never succeeded in the Indian Parliament. Former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Achary told news agency PTI that the notice can only be submitted to the Lok Sabha secretary general and no other official. The document is then examined at the preliminary stage to see whether it contains “very specific charges”. The resolution must not contain defamatory content, and Article 96 allows the Speaker to defend themselves in the House. It is likely to be examined by the senior-most member of the panel of chairpersons since the present Lok Sabha does not have a Deputy Speaker. Once the processing part is over, the resolution reaches the House. But it can go to the House after 14 days, Achary said. The Speaker then places it in the House for consideration. It is actually the House which “grants permission”. “The Speaker then asks members in favour of the resolution to stand up. If 50 members stand up in support of it, if the criteria is fulfilled, the Speaker announces that the House has granted permission. Once the House grants permission, it has to be taken up for discussion and disposed of within 10 days,” Achary added. There are precedents of resolutions being moved. However, none has been adopted so far. “The reason: governments have a majority.” According to an ANI report quoting sources, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had not signed the no-confidence motion against Speaker Om Birla. Sources told the publication that the decision was taken since it was not proper for the Leader of Opposition to sign a petition for the removal of the Speaker in a parliamentary democracy. The no-confidence motion was submitted with support from the Samajwadi Party and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Trinamool Congress MPs did not sign the notice or lend support — with senior party leaders insisting that they wanted the INDIA bloc partners to first sign a letter addressed to the Speaker. “The All India Trinamool Congress has no problem signing the no-confidence motion against the Speaker. All 28 MPs will sign it. However, before moving the no-confidence motion, we want all the INDIA bloc partners to sign a letter addressed to the Speaker, highlighting the four points on which the argument is based,” said TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee. “For instance, eight INC MPs have been suspended. An appeal can be made to reconsider or revoke the suspension. The speaker can be given two to three days’ time to respond. If the Speaker does not act or fails to provide satisfactory responses to the four issues, a no-confidence motion can be introduced after three days,” he added.