“It’s almost like coercion asking the Speaker to quit,” said Fali S Nariman, noted jurist and Constitutional expert. “This sort of procedure adopted by Left parties completely destroys the dignity of the Speaker’s office. It’s extraordinarily unfair on the part of the CPM to expect Somanth to resign,” Nariman said, as he was seconded by similar views from Soli J Sorabjee.

“Why ask or force Speaker to resign when he’s not a nominee of any party?” Sorabjee pointed out. “We all know the office of Speaker is a constitutional post and as Nariman explained that unlike UK, in India whenever a person occupies the august office of Speaker, he does not have to resign from the party. He can remain a member but treating him like another ordinarily party member, is what he called completely wrong. Except for practical, like in this case, political requirements, a Speaker cannot be asked to resign. He’s elected by the majority vote of the house, which only can ask him to quit.”

Calling it an “unhealthy convention,” Supreme Court advocate KT S Tulsi said: “I think Left is being extremely unreasonable with the Speaker. The entire House elected him and it is only the majority vote of the house, by which he can step down.”

Taking it a step further, Rajeev Dhavan, another senior advocate of Supreme Court summed it up, “No Speaker can be asked to resign just because the party on whose seat he was elected as a Member of Parliament, is indulging in number games. It’s improper for the Left to compel the Speaker to step down and it would be more improper for Somnath to succumb to the pressure,” advised Dhavan.

Joining the chorus, former Union Law Minister Shanti Bhushan felt: “It is completely wrong on the part of Left to give his name to the President and now creating a situation, where he’s left so embarrassed. It’s totally unethical on the part of Left, he should have been consulted before hand. It’s his decision. No decision or law or any provision in the Constitution binds him to step down from the post of Speaker. Karat and other Left leaders are actually destroying the esteemed office of the Speaker.”

“They (Left) should have avoided such a scenario putting him to deep embarrassment,” according to P P Rao, another senior advocate. He pointed that since the Speaker’s office, is neutral, does not support or oppose the government, there’s no question of withdrawing his support. “As far as resignation is concerned, it is his individual discretion. No party can ask a Speaker, even if it’s the party on whose ticket he entered Parliament to quit,” Rao added.

Chatterjee also found support from his predecessors Rabi Ray and P A Sangma as both of them were of the view that Speaker’s post in a non-partisan one and it should not be dragged into any political controversy. “I fervently appeal to the leadership of the CPM to allow him to continue as Speaker of the House of People,” Ray, Speaker of the ninth Lok Sabha between 1989 and 1991, told The Indian Express over phone from Bhubaneshwar. His views were echoed by P A Sangma, who said Chatterjee “need not resign because Speakers’ post is a non-partisan post.” “They (the CPI-M) should not have mentioned his name in the list even then he should not resign,” he added.

“Once you become a speaker you do not belong to any political party. Speakers name should not be dragged into any political controversy,” said Sangma, who was Speaker between 1996 and 1998, becoming the first member from the Opposition to hold the post.

However, Chatterjee’s immediate predecessor Manohar Joshi was of the view that he should resign if his party asks him to do so even though there is no Parliamentary rule in this regard. ‘The party only made him the Speaker with the help of other members of Parliament. So it is his duty to resign when ever the party asks him to do so. As a party man he should resign,” Joshi said.

To back his point, Joshi said when late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan asked him whether he was willing to contest for the post of Speaker in 2002, “I said yes, if Balasaheb (Thackeray) permits me. Whatever I have become is because of the party.”