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Part V

Article 89

The Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Council of States

(1) The Vice- President of India shall be ex officio Chairman of the Council of States.

(2) The Council of States shall, as soon as may be, choose a member of the Council to be Deputy Chairman thereof and, so often as the office of Deputy Chairman becomes vacant, the Council shall choose another member to be Deputy Chairman thereof.

Version 1

Article 73, Draft Constitution 1948

(1) The Vice-President of India shall be ex-officio Chairman of the Council of States.

(2) The Council of States shall, as soon as may be, choose a member of the Council to be Deputy Chairman thereof, and so often as the office of Deputy Chairman becomes vacant the Council shall choose another member to be Deputy Chairman thereof.

Version 2

Article 89, Constitution of India

(1) The Vice-President of India shall be ex-officio Chairman of the Council of States.

⁠(2) The Council of States shall, as soon as may be, choose a member of the Council to be Deputy Chairman thereof and, so often as the office of Deputy Chairman becomes vacant, the Council shall choose another member to be Deputy Chairman thereof.

Summary

Draft Article 73 (Article 89) was debated on 19 May 1949. It established the offices of Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Council of States.

A member proposed an amendment to clause two to substitute ‘another member’ to ‘a member’: this would allow the re-election of the outgoing Deputy Chairman.

In opposition, a member pointed out that if the Deputy Chairman was removed or voluntarily resigned from the office, it would not be appropriate to re-elect him/her. The Chairman of the Drafting Committee was not in favour of this proposal and found it ‘absurd’. The purpose of this Draft Article was to regulate the election of the Deputy Chairman, not his/her re-election. Draft Article 74 (Article 90) dealt with the vacancy of the Deputy Chairman’s office; Draft Article 73 would become operational upon such vacancy. And this does not bar re-election of a member who ceased to become a member due to lapse of time.

The Constituent Assembly adopted Draft Article without amendments on 19 May 1949.