A Supreme Court lawyer has filed a petition at the High Court challenging the constitutional rule of a new President being administered the oath office by the Speaker.
Advocate Yunus Ali Akanda filed the petition on Tuesday in which the Law Secretary, Cabinet Division Secretary, Secretary to the Parliament Secretariat and Speaker of Parliament were made the respondents.
It said that since 1972, the Chief Justice had been swearing in a new President. But the Acting Speaker Shawkat Ali administered the oath to President Abdul Hamid on Apr 24.
As per the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, the Speaker will administer the oath to the new President, but the Deputy Speaker has been given no such authority in the law.
The petition said: “India’s Constitution has the provision that the Chief Justice or the senior-most justice of the Appellate Division will administer the oath to the new President. The first President of the US George Washington’s oath-taking was administered by New York’s Chancellor of State Robert Livingston. The country’s second President’s oath-taking was administered by an associate judge of the Supreme Court and the oath-taking of their successors was done by the Chief Justice.”
Akanda said in his petition that the Chief Justice’s job was a constitutional post and that Parliament cannot curtail the duty or the rights of the Chief Justice.
“The opponents (of the petition) cannot destroy the President’s oath-taking system by formulating laws. Parliament cannot bring the provision of President’s oath-taking being administered by the Speaker instead of the Chief Justice.”
The petitioner also urged the High Court to issue a ruling upon the opponents asking them to explain why introducing changes to the Constitution regarding the oath-taking of the President should not be declared illegal.
Source: Bd news24