Guwahati, Mar 25 (PTI) Assam Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary on Tuesday rejected two breach of privilege motions against the chief minister, and a censure motion against one of his cabinet colleagues moved in the House by the Congress.

The opposition party had submitted the motions to the Speaker earlier, with Daimary giving his ruling on the concluding day of the budget session.

Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia and a number of other Congress MLAs had sought to move a breach of privilege motion against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his remarks during a discussion under ‘Speaker’s Initiative’ on the development of Sixth Schedule areas.

Saikia, through another notice, had sought a separate breach of privilege motion against Sarma for allegedly providing wrong information with reference to a report of an inquiry commission, which had probed anomalies in Assam Public Service Commission examinations.

Daimary said that breach of privilege motion is allowed when it can be established that a minister had knowingly misled the House or laid wrong information.

But in both cases, the Congress could not provide any evidence to prove that the chief minister had intention of misleading the house, the Speaker contended.

Daimary said that if the Congress was not convinced of Sarma’s statement, they could have raised the matter through other provisions in the House, and disallowed both the breach of privilege motions.

On the censure motion sought by Saikia against Health Minister Ashok Singhal over some of his recent statements, Daimary said those pertain to happenings outside the House.

As censure motion is admissible for happenings inside the House only, Daimary rejected the leader of opposition’s request for such a motion against the minister. PTI SSG RBT

Breach of privilege denied as Speaker requires proof of intentional misleading; censure limited to in house conduct. The Speaker disallowed two breach of privilege motions for lack of evidence that the chief minister knowingly misled the House, and rejected a censure motion because the complained statements related to events outside the chamber, whereas censure is admissible only for in House conduct.