194 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
of whom there are always several appointed by the King’s Commission and if they should all be absent, the Lords elect a Speaker for the time being. The Speaker of the House of Lords need not necessarily be a Peer, and that office may be discharged by a commoner and has been so discharged when a commoner happened to be the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal or when the Great Seal was in commission. It is singular that the President of this deliberative body is not necessarily a member of it, and the Woolsack on which the Speaker sits is treated as being outside the limits of the House of Lords, so as to permit the office being discharged by a person who is not a member of the House.
THE DUTIES OF THE SPEAKER IN THE LORDS
The position of the Speaker of the House of Lords is totally different from the position of the Speaker of the House of Commons. There is nothing common between them as far as their authority and function is concerned except that both are Chairmen of a deliberative assembly. But so far as their function and authority is concerned, their position is fundamentally different. This is clear from standing order No. 20 which defines the duties of the Lord Chancellor as a Speaker of the House of Lords. The standing order says: “The Lord Chancellor when he speaks to the House is always to speak uncovered and is not to adjourn the House or to do anything else as mouth of the House, without the consent of the Lords first had, except the ordinary thing about bills which are of course wherein the Lords may likewise overrule, as for preferring one bill before another and such like, and in case of difference among the Lords, it is to be put to the question, and if the Lord Chancellor speak to anything particularly, he is to go to his own place as a Peer” and be it noted that the place of the Lord Chancellor if he is a Peer is to the left of the Chamber. It is clear from the standing order how limited is the authority of the Speaker in the Lords.
(1) In the enforcemment of rules for maintaining order the Speaker of the House of Lords has no more authority than any other Peer.