Convening assembly session before Aug 27 a tough call

LUCKNOW Convening the state legislature’s monsoon session before August 27, as required under constitutional provisions, is going to be a challenge for the state government in the light of the fight against Covid-19.

The legislature’s budget session ended on February 28 and under constitutional provisions ‘six months shall not intervene between its last sitting in one session and the date appointed for its first sitting in the next session.’

Although chief minister Yogi Adityanath or any member of his council of ministers have not made any statement, the issue of holding sittings of the house amid the Covid-19 pandemic has obviously become a cause of concern.

“The legislature’s session will be convened at an appropriate time,” said minister for parliamentary affairs Suresh Khanna.

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Although Khanna did not elaborate, the state government will have to keep in mind reports of spread of Covid-19 infection and make appropriate arrangements for following ‘social distancing norms’ whenever it decides to convene the next session of the legislature.

There are reports that leader of the opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary and Samajwadi Party member Shailendra

Yadav Lalai have tested Covid positive and are undergoing treatment.

The assembly has a sanctioned strength of 403 members. It has seats for 379 members. There are five vacancies in the house now. Yet, the total strength of members remains higher than the available seats. At any given time the house should have 10 per cent members

in the house to complete the quorum and this may provide an option of having a low attendance in the house to follow ‘social distancing norms’ in the fight against Covid-19.

As many houses in the country may have to meet in the next few months to meet the sixmonth constitutional requirement, the issue came up for discussion at a video conference that Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla had with presiding officers of state legislatures on April 21.

State assembly speaker Hridaya Narain Dikshit raised the issue at the video conference and said: “This is the time to consider whether the committees of parliament or committees of state legislatures can hold meetings through video conference with certain modifications. As far as holding meetings of legislatures through video conference is concerned there may be a need to consider this. The Constitution of India provides that there should not be more than six months gap between two meetings of the houses. I understand this six-month period may be nearing completion and if a meeting is called there may be social distancing rule violation.”

Later this issue also came up for discussion at the ‘Smooth Functioning Committee’ meeting of presiding officers that Dikshit chaired through a video conference on May 29.

Now, the question arises: Will a virtual sitting of the state legislature be possible?

“As of now, the Constitution does not provide for holding a virtual meeting of the legislatures. A limited presence of members at any given time may be an option for holding a session. Members may be asked to attend the house on odd-even basis as well,” said CB Pandey, former advisor to the governor and a constitutional expert.

Dikshit said the issue of convening the monsoon session of legislature is yet to be discussed. He said holding the session by August 27 would be the constitutional requirement. “So, we have sufficient time to discuss the issue,” he added.