Petition challenges oath ceremony

A Supreme Court lawyer has filed a writ petition challenging the administering of the oath of office to the Prime Minister and new Cabinet.

Md Yunus Ali Akhand filed the petition with the the High Court on Sunday, hours before the oath ceremony that is scheduled for 3:30pm at the Bangabhaban.

“I have filed the petition from an ethical standpoint and will try to have the hearing today (Sunday) held at the 11th bench (Mirza Hussain Haider and Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarker),“ Akhand told bdnews24.com.

The Secretaries to Law Ministry and Cabinet Division, the Chief Election Commissioner and the EC Secretary, the Speaker and Parliament Secretariat’s Secretary have been made defendants in the petition.

The petition sought a stay on the gazette notification naming the MPs.

The petitioner sought a rule on why the gazette and oath taking of the MPs should not be declared illegal.

It also asked for a rule on why directives should not be issued to hold another election within next 90 days.

The petition argues that the Constitution’s article 123 (3) lays down that the new parliament cannot start functioning before the expiry of the previous parliament.

As per the article 67 (1) (Ka), the new MPs will lose their membership if they are not sworn into office within 90 days.

However, the Speaker can extend the time frame for reasons deemed fit.

According to article 65 (2), the number of total MPs is 300 (350 including women MPs).

But at present the total number of MPs is 638, including those of the ninth parliament, which is conflicting with the article 65.

As per the article 71 (1), a person cannot be an MP for two or more constituencies at the same time.

But now the same person is the MP of both the 9th and 10th Parliament and there are two MPs in the same constituency since the 9th parliament was not dissolved in line with the article 72 (Ka) or its term did not expire as per the article 72 (3).

The petition said the government should have issued gazette notifications after Jan 25 in line with the Representation of the People Order (RPO) or had got the Parliament dissolved by the President before arranging for the swearing-in session.