Speaker Biman Banerjee on Friday administered oath to newly elected MLAs Sayantika Banerjee and Reyat Hossain Sarkar in a special one-day session, prompting governor C.V. Ananda Bose to complain to President Droupadi Murmu of “constitutional impropriety”.
Raj Bhavan said in a statement on social media that in his letter, Bose stated that the “constitutional transgression” was done despite him appointing deputy Speaker Asish Banerjee to administer the oath.
The governor had sent a letter to the Speaker on Thursday delegating the responsibility to the deputy Speaker.
Deputy Speaker Banerjee, however, refused to take on the responsibility, stating that it would “demean the position” of the Speaker.
“When you (the Speaker) are present, I cannot conduct the oath-taking ceremony. I request you to administer the oath,” said the deputy Speaker.
In response, the Speaker, who administered the oath, said: “A member, who has not already made pursuance of Article 188 of the Constitution, may do so at the commencement of a sitting of the House, or at any other time of the sitting of the House, as the Speaker may direct, on any day after giving previous notice in writing to the principal secretary.”
“Both the legislators have already given their notices to the principal secretary, and so there is nothing illegal in their oath-taking,” he added, referring to Rule 5 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
Bose, citing Article 188 of the Constitution, underscored that every member of the Assembly shall, before taking their seat, make and subscribe before the governor, or some person appointed in that behalf by him, an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule.
Asked about it, the Speaker said: “The two legislators have been sworn in and their names have been included. The governor can do anything he desires. I am not going to respond to social media posts (by Raj Bhavan).”
“I had already informed the President about this (impasse),” he added.
Constitutional experts, however, agreed with Bose’s argument that the Constitution stood over and above any rule.
“A constitutional authority has delegated the responsibility to an individual, and if this delegation is not challenged, it cannot be ignored,” said Justice (retired) Asok Kumar Ganguly, a former Supreme Court judge.
“Furthermore, the delegation to one person cannot be re-delegated to someone else. These are constitutional norms and cannot be disregarded,” he added.
Asked about it, parliamentary affairs minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said: “We have followed the rules of procedure of our state Legislative Assembly, and there was nothing illegal about it.”
“The swearing-in was kept suspended for a long time, and even after one month (of their victory in the bypolls), they couldn’t discharge their duties,” he added.
After the election process is completed, the office of the chief electoral officer sends separate letters to the Assembly and the state government with details of the winners. The state’s parliamentary affairs department requests Raj Bhavan to initiate the swearing-in for the victors.
The latest standoff between the Raj Bhavan and the Assembly began when the parliamentary affairs department did not send a letter to Bose, and instead, the Speaker informed the Raj Bhavan directly about the new MLAs, requesting to administer the oath himself.
In response, Bose had invited the two MLAs to come to the Raj Bhavan and take their oath on June 26. However, both the MLAs expressed their preference to be sworn in at the Assembly, asking Bose to go there. Bose’s refusal to oblige prompted the duo to stage a sit-in on the Assembly premises for days.
“This was a bypoll, and barely a year-and-a-half remains (of the five-year term). This would have been resolved sooner, if the governor had so desired. This is most unfortunate. Finally, we were able to take the oath, and now we have to plunge headlong to begin properly working for the people,” said the newly-elected Baranagar MLA Sayantika Banerjee.
