Guv will be sent letter to administer oaths to new MLAs: Speaker
Times of India | 16 July 2024
Kolkata: Bengal assembly speaker Biman Banerjee on Monday said the parliamentary affairs department would write to governor C V Ananda Bose to administer oaths to the four newly elected MLAs. The new Trinamool MLAs — elected from Maniktala (Supti Pandey), Bagda (Madhuparna Thakur), Ranaghat South (Mukut Mani Adhikari) and Raiganj (Krishna Kalyani) in the July 10 bypolls— met Banerjee on Monday with their victory certificates.
Banerjee said that after a mid-term poll, the speaker administered oath to newly elected members.The Lok Sabha also followed the convention, he added. “But last time, the governor thought otherwise,” he said.
With the monsoon session of the assembly set to start on July 22, the governor has a week to administer the oaths. Recently there was a controversy after newly elected MLAs Sayantika Banerjee and Reyat Hossain Sarkar refused to take oath at Raj Bhavan and wanted the governor to administer their oaths in the assembly. However, Bose did not entertain the legislators’ plea, and they were administered oath by the speaker during a special session in the assembly on July 5. Bose termed it a breach of the Constitution. He had authorised deputy speaker Ashis Banerjee to administer oath, but he refused it citing Article 188. Instead, Banerjee administered the oaths to the two legislators.
Banerjee said the letter would be sent to the governor per constitutional convention. He, however, refused to elaborate on whether the governor would be urged to administer the oath at the assembly. He said there was a provision to administer oaths in the assembly itself as was the case regarding Sayantika and Reyat Hossain. “The first item in the proceedings is administering oaths to the new MLAs. But we need to follow the constitutional convention,” he added.
Sources said if the governor did not act within a week, then on July 23 — as on July 22, an adjournment is expected after paying condolences — the new MLAs can be administered oath through a provision of rule 5 of chapter II of the assembly proceedings.