SHILLONG: Denied a chance to raise some ‘important issues’ relating to the Assembly Secretariat, HSPDP legislator Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit on Thursday advocated the supremacy of the House when it came to raising issues related to the Assembly Secretariat, Governor’s Secretariat and the High Court.
Basaiawmoit raised a point of order in the Assembly on Thursday asking the reason for disallowing his questions regarding the appointment of staff in the Assembly. The HSPDP leader said that he had submitted questions to the Assembly Secretariat on September 8 on some important issues relating to it, but the queries were not listed.
The reply from the Commissioner and Secretary, Assembly, Andrew Simons was that questions moved by Basaiawmoit were disallowed by the Speaker as the subject matter fell under his administrative control.
“The Assembly Secretariat, Governor’s Secretariat and the High Court come under charged expenditure as provided under the Constitution of India and they are not discussed in the House,” Simons said in the letter addressed to Basaiawmoit.
Basaiawmoit, later, told reporters that under ‘charged expenditure’, the issues related to expenditure on all constitutional offices, and expenditure towards interest payment can be discussed by the legislature, but voting is not allowed.
The letter from the Commissioner and Secretary, Assembly, also said that as per the practice and procedure followed in Parliament and legislative assemblies, questions and discussion which come under the administrative control of the Speaker are disallowed.
However, raising the point of order, Basaiawmoit reiterated that the House is supreme, and added that questions raised by him should be entertained.
Later Basaiawmoit informed reporters that he had put up questions on why senior officers in the Assembly were superseded. Another question was whether the appointment of Commissioner and Secretary (Andrew Simons) was carried out as per rules.
Basaiawmoit said that as per the practice and procedure of the Parliament, the principal duty of the Speaker is to regulate the proceedings of the House and to enable it to deliberate on and decide the various matters before it.
“Thus, considering the various notices or points raised before him, the Speaker should always bear this in mind and when in doubt, he should act in favour of giving an opportunity to the House to express itself. The Speaker is a part of the House, not its master,” Basaiawmoit said, quoting the practice and procedure of Parliament.
