Several Assam MLAs take oath in languages not in Eighth Schedule of Constitution

In a departure from norms, several newly elected members of the Assam Legislative Assembly on Thursday took oath in languages such as Karbi, Rabha and Rajbongshi, which are not in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.Pro-Tem Speaker Chandra Mohan Patowary allowed the MLAs to take the oath in their language of choice and only asked the members to submit a copy of the oath if it was not part of the 22 officially recognised languages.All the members can take the oath in any language they wish to.

In a departure from norms, several newly elected members of the Assam Legislative Assembly on Thursday took oath in languages such as Karbi, Rabha and Rajbongshi, which are not in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

Pro-Tem Speaker Chandra Mohan Patowary allowed the MLAs to take the oath in their language of choice and only asked the members to submit a copy of the oath if it was not part of the 22 officially recognised languages.

''All the members can take the oath in any language they wish to. They can submit their oath copies to the assembly office. No community should feel disheartened regarding the language of the oath,'' he said in the House.

Thereafter, many members from the Rabha, Karbi and Koch-Rajbongshi communities took the oath in their native languages.

The MLAs also took the oath in other recognised languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Sanskrit, Hindi and English.

Explaining the Pro-Tem Speaker's decision, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, ''A member can take oath only in Eighth Schedule languages. But our MLA Tankeswar Rabha asked me if he could take oath in the Rabha language. As it is not part of the Eighth Schedule, there was no provision for it.''.

However, he, along with AGP president Atul Bora, discussed the matter with Patowary in the morning, and the Pro-Tem Speaker decided to allow the members to take the oath in their respective mother tongues, the CM added.

''So, our members took the oath in Rabha, Karbi and Rajbongshi languages as well. It is a historic milestone in the Assam Assembly,'' Sarma said.

Thanking Patowary for allowing this deviation, he said it has represented a diverse multi-cultural Assamese society in the Assembly.

When contacted, a former principal secretary of the Assam Legislative Assembly told PTI that taking the oath in languages other than those mentioned in the Eighth Schedule is not permissible by law.

''The Speaker of the House has some discretionary power and can make decisions independently in matters where the law is silent. However, in this case, it is clearly noted that the oath can be taken only in any of the 22 recognised languages,'' the retired IAS officer said on condition of anonymity.

The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution consists of Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.