Somnath Chatterjee - distinguished Parliamentarian who wore many hats

An outstanding parliamentarian, Somnath Chatterjee was the first communist to become the Lok Sabha Speaker and had once famously refused to accept a Supreme Court notice, demarcating the jurisdiction of the judiciary and the legislature.

The 10-time MP was associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for most part of his life and will be remembered as one of the most illustrious speakers of the Lok Sabha.

A close associate of Marxist leader Jyoti Basu, Chatterjee was unanimously elected as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha in 2004 during the UPA-I government.

After his party CPI(M), then under the general secretaryship of Prakash Karat, withdrew support from the UPA government in July 2008, Chatterjee refused to step down from his position holding that the Speaker's post is above any party politics.

He was expelled by the CPI(M) on July 23, 2008 for "seriously compromising the position of the party".

He had described that day as "one of the saddest days of my life".

"The speaker of Lok Sabha, like the speakers of other elected assemblies, while acting as such does not and cannot represent any political party," he had said.

Chatterjee in his autobiography "Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a Parliamentarian" had criticised Karat who he called an 'arrogant and intolerant man' and blamed his "misguided and disastrous policies" for weakening of the Left in the country since the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

Despite his expulsion, his love for the party and its ideology remained undiminished. After Sitaram Yechury took over the reins of the CPI(M), there were rumours that the party might take him back if he wrote to the leadership. But Chatterjee always felt he did no wrong in presiding over the trust vote as a speaker and there was no question of apologising.

During his tenure as Speaker, Chatterjee had famously said in 2005 that the Supreme Court had crossed the 'lakshman rekha' in sending a notice to him regarding the power of the Lok Sabha to expel its members, in connection with the cash-for-query scandal.

Chatterjee, as the Speaker, had then refused to submit himself to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in hearing this matter.

Later he had told PTI in an interview, "I am not a dummy.... My issue is very simple. Constitutionally our functioning comes under Art 122 and I cannot accept the Supreme Court's directions (to the legislature).

"According to me the lakshman rekha was crossed. To me the Constitution is supreme. Neither the legislature nor the Supreme Court is above the Constitution. ... I am supreme in my area and the courts are supreme in theirs. But to put this matter as 'legislature versus judiciary' is an artificially created controversy."