SC junks plea for fresh oath ceremony of five UP ministers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea seeking fresh oath ceremony of five Uttar Pradesh ministers including the deputy chief minister in the Yogi Adityanath government.

The plea, which was junked by the apex court, has claimed that in a goof-up, the five ministers including deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma did not say “I” and straightaway went to say their name, followed by the oath as administered by Governor Ram Naik.

“You are a very intelligent lawyer. You have come to us canvassing a larger picture. You have come here to be famous and today we will make you so famous that the people will say here is the great man,” a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said.

The lawyer, cited a precedent of former US President Barak Obama who in 2009 took oath for the second time because a word was out of sequence when he was sworn in.

In 2009, then Chief Justice John Roberts had accidentally switched the word order when he administered the oath to Obama, saying “I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully,” instead of, “I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.” 

Advocate Anupam Anand said that UP ministers Dinesh Sharma, Rajesh Agarwal, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, S P Singh Baghel and Satyadev Pachori did not say “I” during the oath taking cermeony which was held on March 19.

“That it was a major fault in their swearing-in as they had not uttered the word ‘I’ in beginning of the Oath of Affirmation as deputy chief minister and ministers, then there followed the Oath of secrecy and again they did not utter the word ‘I’.

“The respected Governor said the word ‘I’ which must be repeated as it is by all of the Ministers while taking oath of affirmation and secrecy, but by mistake, it was overlooked by the above ministers and not earmarked by the Governor present there”, the plea said.

The plea also sought direction seeking to restrain the ministers who have not taken Oath in accordance with the Constitution from performing their duties.