There is another point which I would like to draw your attention to. In the Rules that have been framed by us during the previous sessions. We have stated-I refer to Rule5 sub-rule (2)– “Upon the occurrence of a vacancy, the President shall ordinarily make a request in writing to the Speaker of the Provincial Legislative Assembly concerned, or as the case may be, to the President of the Coorg Legislative Council, for the election of a person, for the purpose of filling the vacancy as soon as may reasonably be practicable.” Here, now that in some of the States mentioned in Part I of the Annexure–I am sorry I cannot say off hand which States have got elected legislature functioning–take for instance, Mysore; it is a big State and it has already sent its representatives to this Assembly–so far as such States are concerned, I see no reason why in future, instead of the Ruler, the Speaker or President of the Assembly should not be requested to fill the vacancies that may arise. It may be argued against this that the Rule as it stands, 5-A provides for the Ruler being the authority in this case. But, as we are amending the Rules, why not amend certain provisions of these Rules so as to make them more in conformity with democratic practice and democratic traditions? Therefore, I would ask my honourable friend Shrimati Durgabai to explain why, in the case of those states where we have got Assemblies functioning, the Speaker or the President should not be the authority instead of the Ruler. On this point, I would ask some more light from the mover of the motion.
