“It’s 2026, My Dear Friends”: Speaker Steps In to Fix His Own Removal Notice

In an unusual parliamentary moment where the calendar briefly became the central issue, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla stepped in to ensure that a notice seeking his removal did not falter on a simple question of what year it is .

Parliamentary sources said the notice, signed by 118 opposition MPs and submitted on Tuesday to Lok Sabha Secretary General Utpal Kumar Singh , referred multiple times to events of February 2025 , even though the motion was moved in February 2026 . Under House rules, such time-traveling references could have rendered the notice procedurally defective and liable to rejection at the threshold.

Rather than allowing the motion to be undone by a faulty calendar, Birla directed the Lok Sabha Secretariat to have the drafting errors corrected so that the notice could be taken up as per the rules . The opposition subsequently withdrew the original version and submitted a revised notice , this time firmly anchored in 2026, which will now be examined expeditiously.

Opposition parties, including the Congress, Samajwadi Party and DMK , have accused the Speaker of acting in a “ blatantly partisan ” manner and moved the notice under Article 94(c) of the Constitution , which lays down the procedure for the removal of the Lok Sabha Speaker or Deputy Speaker. The notice was submitted by Congress deputy leader Gaurav Gogoi , chief whip K Suresh and whip Mohamed Jawed on behalf of several opposition parties.

To avoid any suggestion of conflict and to preserve the neutrality of the Chair, Birla has stepped aside from presiding over House proceedings until the motion is decided. The no-confidence motion is expected to be taken up on March 9 , when the Lok Sabha reconvenes after the recess to consider budgetary proposals.

With the ruling party holding a comfortable majority , the motion against Birla is unlikely to succeed. By ensuring procedural correctness and stepping aside temporarily, the Speaker has left little room for argument other than over politics, rather than punctuation or dates.

Under Article 96 of the Constitution , the Speaker has the right to defend himself in the House and may vote on the motion, though he cannot exercise a casting vote in the event of a tie .