25.07.2020 : Maha Governor urges Vice President, Speaker to come up with advisory for maintaining sanctity of oath taking process

Maha Governor urges Vice President, Speaker to come up with advisory for maintaining sanctity of oath taking process

Observing that some of the newly elected members of parliament / state legislatures are departing from the prescribed form of language for oath taking and adding the names of their party leaders or venerable personalities while reading oaths, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari today urged Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to come up with an advisory to be adhered to in the context of the form and oath being read out by members.

The Governor noted that such directions were needed to preserve the ‘sanctity and dignity’ of the oath taking process.

“Adding names of party leaders or any other person to whom members owe their faith or allegiance, to the format of the oath taking, violates the sanctity of oath taking process”, wrote Koshyari.

In separate letters addressed to the presiding officers of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, Governor Koshyari recalled that he had to personally intervene and direct some of the members being sworn in as Ministers in Maharashtra to repeat their oath strictly as per the prescribed format without any addition or deletion.

In this context, he has urged the Vice President and Lok Sabha Speaker ‘to examine and deliberate upon’ the issue of departure by members from the prescribed format for oath and to come up with suitable directions / advisories to all concerned stakeholders so as to safeguard the sanctity and dignity of the oath taking process.