Newly elected 61 members of the Rajya Sabha will be administered oath on Wednesday, and for the first time, the ceremony will be done inside the House chamber when Parliament is not in session
Subscribing to oath or affirmation when Parliament is not in session is usually done in the Chairman’s room.
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The ceremony had to be cancelled once before as members expressed inability to travel to Delhi.
Elected members, without taking oath, cannot participate in meetings of parliamentary committees. And two of them, the DMK’s Tiruchi Siva and the TRS’s K Keshava Rao, are chairpersons of committees and they cannot convene their panel meetings. Newly elected members also cannot participate in meetings of the committees without making or subscribing to oath or affirmation.
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Rajya Sabha officials said each member would be allowed only one guest to accompany them at the oath-taking ceremony.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has decided to this effect, keeping in view resumption of meetings by the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees of both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha and keen interest expressed by the new members to participate in such meetings.
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Newly elected members also cannot participate in the committee meetings without making or subscribing to oath or affirmation.
The Secretary General of Rajya Sabha wrote to all the newly elected members informing them of the oath-taking on July 22. Those who fail to turn up will be administered oath or affirmation during the ensuing monsoon session, the officials said.
Oath-taking by the new members planned earlier had to be deferred in view of concerns expressed by some of them over travelling to Delhi, officials said.
(With PTI inputs)
