The government denied the Opposition allegation that the Table of Precedence was violated in the seating of the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, during the swearing-in ceremony of the President in the Central Hall of Parliament on Monday.

The combined Opposition in the Rajya Sabha submitted a protest letter to the chairman in the afternoon in which they claimed that Kharge was “made to sit in a seat not commensurate with the position he holds”.

Further, the letter signed by MPs of various parties including the Trinamul Congress, said: “We are writing to express our shock and protest at this deliberate disrespect shown to a very senior leader violating the warrant of precedence and not in accordance with protocol courtesies due to him.”

Leader of the House, Piyush Goyal, later said the Table of Precedence had been followed in the seating arrangement.

“The LoP comes seventh in this Table of Precedence. As per this he should have been in the third row but he had been positioned on the front row.

“When he objected that he was in a corner, the staff offered to move him more towards the centre of the row but he refused. The Opposition has no issue, so they have brought this baseless charge to prevent the House from functioning,” Goyal told the Rajya Sabha.