Which pair of parliamentary committees is popularly described as the twin sisters of financial control?

The correct answer is B, Article 93. Article 93 of the Constitution provides that the House of the People shall, as soon as may be, choose two members of the House to be respectively Speaker and Deputy Speaker, and that whenever either office becomes vacant the House shall choose another member to fill it. The election is held on a date fixed by the President and is decided by a simple majority of those present and voting. Option A is wrong because Article 89 is the matching provision for the Rajya Sabha, which deals with the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of the Council of States, and the Vice-President is the ex officio Chairman there. Option C is wrong because Article 97 only charges the salaries and allowances of these presiding officers on the Consolidated Fund of India. Option D is wrong because Article 100 covers voting in the Houses, the casting vote of the presiding officer and the quorum of one-tenth of the total membership.

The correct answer is B, a majority of all the then members of the House. Article 94(c) says the Speaker or Deputy Speaker may be removed from office by a resolution of the House of the People passed by a majority of all the then members of the House, and the proviso requires fourteen days notice of the intention to move such a resolution. This is the effective majority, counted on the strength of the House excluding vacancies, not on those merely present. Option A is wrong because a simple majority is what elects the Speaker under Article 93, not what removes the Speaker. Options C and D are wrong because a two-thirds majority is nowhere required for the Speaker; it belongs to other provisions, such as the removal of a judge or the impeachment of the President, and examiners place it here as a deliberate trap. Note also that Article 96 bars the Speaker from presiding while such a resolution is being considered.

The correct answer is B. The proviso to Article 94 states that the Speaker shall not vacate office on the dissolution of the House of the People but shall continue to hold it until immediately before the first meeting of the next Lok Sabha. The reason is practical: the office must survive so that someone can authenticate records, exercise the powers of the House in the interval and hand over an orderly House to the new Speaker. Option A is wrong precisely because of this proviso, which makes the Speaker an exception to the rule that the House and its members go with dissolution. Option C is wrong because the President appoints only a Speaker pro tem, and that is to swear in the members of the new House after it is constituted, not to fill a gap after dissolution. Option D is wrong because the Rajya Sabha is a permanent House that is never dissolved, and its Chairman has no role in Lok Sabha business except at a joint sitting in the Speaker absence.

The correct answer is B. Article 100(1) provides that the Speaker or the person acting as Speaker shall not vote in the first instance, but shall have and exercise a casting vote in the case of an equality of votes. The purpose is to keep the chair above party contest while still giving the House a way out of a deadlock. Option A is wrong because voting in the first instance on every question is what an ordinary member does, and the chair is deliberately denied that right. Option C is wrong because the Speaker role in Money Bills is a different one altogether: under Article 110(4) the Speaker certifies whether a Bill is a Money Bill, and that certificate is final and cannot be questioned in any court. Option D is wrong because the Speaker is a full member of the House and does vote in two situations, namely a casting vote under Article 100 and a first-instance vote on a resolution for the Speaker own removal under Article 96.

The correct answer is B. The Public Accounts Committee has twenty-two members, fifteen elected by the Lok Sabha and seven by the Rajya Sabha, each by proportional representation through the single transferable vote, for a term of one year. Its chairperson is appointed by the Speaker from among its Lok Sabha members, and since 1967 the convention has been to appoint a member of the Opposition. The committee examines the appropriation accounts and the audit reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Option A is wrong because fifteen is only the Lok Sabha share of the committee, not its total strength. Option C is wrong because thirty, all drawn from the Lok Sabha, is the Estimates Committee, which has no Rajya Sabha representation at all. Option D is wrong because thirty-one, split twenty-one and ten, is the size of each Departmentally Related Standing Committee. The Committee on Public Undertakings, like the Public Accounts Committee, has twenty-two members.