Administer oath to MLA in Assembly: Speaker to Governor

Assembly has a rich history and the swearing-in ceremonies of MLAs usually take place in the House, he said. “Now it is up to the Governor to decide,” he said. The Speaker’s statement came hours after the Governor had reportedly written to Deputy Speaker Ashish Banerjee to officiate the swearing-in of the legislator. The Governor’s letter had raised a few eyebrows as usually it is the Speaker who administers the oath to an MLA.

However, Ashish Banerjee has already refused to administer the oath to Roy. “It is a humiliation of the Speaker’s chair,” said the Deputy Speaker on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya took a dig at the Speaker. “I don’t think the Governor did anything which is against our Constitution. I think he might not have given this responsibility (to swear in Roy) to the Speaker because his eyesight is poor. He never saw MLAs who joined TMC from BJP as those from the ruling party. Because of his eyesight, he still saw them as BJP MLAs,” he said in a lighter vein.

Later in the night, the Raj Bhavan claimed the government was “playing hide-and-seek” over the swearing-in. In a statement, it said that the file regarding the swearing-in was placed before the Governor on September 21, and the order regarding it was issued on the same day. The order was communicated to the Parliamentary Affairs Department, it said.

“The Governor pins down the government for playing hide-and-seek with the swearing-in of Roy. He is still ready to have the oath administered at the earliest,” the statement said.

Earlier on Saturday, the Raj Bhavan had alleged that the Dhupguri MLA did not turn up for his oath-taking ceremony. Roy, however, has claimed that he did not receive any official intimation about the ceremony.

In May last year, then Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had nominated Deputy Speaker Ashish Banerjee to administer the oath to TMC MLA Babul Supriyo, instead of the Speaker.