Bengal Governor writes to President after Speaker administers oath to MLAs

Kolkata: The West Bengal governor and the state government are at loggerheads again over the oath-taking ceremony of two MLAs of the ruling Trinamool Congress.

Governor CV Ananda Bose, who on Thursday night authorised deputy speaker Asish Banerjee to administer the oath, has taken exception to assembly speaker Biman Banerjee administering it instead. On Friday, Bose wrote to President Droupadi Murmu, complaining about what he termed "the constitutional impropriety of the speaker".

After a month-long impasse, with the governor insisting that the new MLAs take oath in the Raj Bhavan and the MLAs demanding that they be administered oath by the speaker, Rewat Hossain Sarkar and Sayantika Banerjee took oath during a special assembly session Friday after Bose authorised Asish Banerjee to conduct the auth taking. In the assembly, the deputy speaker, however, requested the speaker to administer it, saying that "it is against the norms for the deputy speaker to administer the oath when the speaker is present on the Chair".

"The governor had delegated the responsibility to the deputy speaker. After much complexity, the issue was resolved and an oath was administered today to the two Trinamool MLAs," state parliamentary affairs minister Sobhondeb Chattopadhyay told a press conference. He said this was done following Rule 5 of the Rules of Procedure Conduct & Business of the West Bengal assembly.

In a statement posted on microblogging site X, the governor's office said: "It is elementary knowledge that the Constitution is above any rule."

"This constitutional transgression" has been done in spite of the governor appointing the deputy speaker to administer the oath, it said.

The statement cited the Third Schedule of the Constitution to indicate that a legislative assembly or council member in a state needs to take oath before the governor or a person appointed by him.

Protesting the governor's stand, both legislators had been on a sit-in on the assembly premises for the past few days, demanding they be administered oath by the speaker.