New Assembly Constituted After Notification of Elected MLAs by Election Commission, According to Supreme Court Ruling

New Assembly Constituted After Notification of Elected MLAs by Election Commission, According to Supreme Court Ruling

The 15th Haryana Assembly elections were conducted on October 5, 2024, and the counting of votes took place on October 8, 2024. On the same day, results for all 90 assembly constituencies were announced. The following day, on October 9, 2024, the Election Commission of India issued a Gazette notification under Section 73 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. This notification included the serial numbers and names of all constituencies, along with the names of the newly elected members and their political affiliations, or lack thereof, as declared by the Returning Officers (ROs).

As per the Supreme Court’s ruling in various cases, including the landmark Rameshwar Prasad vs Union of India (2006) case concerning the premature dissolution of the Bihar Assembly, a newly elected assembly is deemed constituted on the date of the Election Commission’s notification. This legal precedent clarifies that the formation of the new Haryana Assembly was officially complete on October 9, 2024, with the issuance of the notification, despite the fact that the first session is scheduled to begin on October 25, 2024, as per the Governor’s summons under Article 174(1) of the Indian Constitution.

Though the new Assembly’s first session is yet to be held, the notification date legally marks the establishment of the new legislative body. In accordance with constitutional provisions, the five-year term of the Haryana Assembly begins from the first sitting of the newly constituted legislative assembly. This means the term of the 15th Haryana Assembly will span from October 25, 2024, to October 24, 2029, unless dissolved earlier. However, from a legal standpoint, the new Assembly was considered formed on October 9, 2024.

This has financial implications for the newly elected legislators. As per legal and constitutional interpretations, the salaries and allowances of the newly elected MLAs become payable from the date of the Election Commission’s notification, not from the date they take the oath of office. Therefore, the MLAs of the 15th Haryana Assembly are entitled to their salaries and allowances starting from October 9, 2024, even though the official swearing-in ceremony and the first session of the Assembly will be held on October 25, 2024.

Nevertheless, the prevailing practice in Haryana, as followed by the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, is that MLAs begin receiving their salaries and allowances from the date of their oath-taking. This practice has been followed despite there being no specific law or rule mandating it. In response to an RTI query filed in 2019, the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Secretariat stated that salaries and allowances are provided to MLAs based on the existing tradition, which ties the commencement of these entitlements to the date they take the oath of office, rather than the date of the Election Commission notification.

This tradition, however, contradicts the legal position established by constitutional rulings, which stipulate that newly elected legislators are entitled to receive their benefits from the date of notification, not the date of oath-taking. Despite this, the Haryana Assembly continues to follow its conventional approach.

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