Assam Assembly ends Friday adjournment for Namaz

The Assam Legislative Assembly has passed a historic order by changing its rules to discard the age-old practice of adjourning sessions on Fridays to offer Namaz. This tradition had been in place since 1946.

In the past, whenever the Assembly had work on a Friday, it was adjourned between 11:30 am and 1 pm to allow Muslim members to offer their weekly Friday prayers. It was during the speakership of Sayed Sadullah that this practice was started whereby the House would adjourn to enable members to attend the Namaz before returning in the afternoon to the House to attend to legislative work.

However, in a move reflecting the secular ethos of the Indian Constitution, Speaker Biswajit Daimary proposed an end to this tradition. Daimary said that the Assembly should operate on Fridays without religious interruptions, aligning with the principle of equality and non-discrimination.

Daimary headed the Rules Committee, which examined the proposal and accepted it unanimously. As per today's voting in the House to amend the Rules of Procedure, the adjournment rule has now been officially scrapped. This decision saluted as modernization of the legislature is actually a commitment to secularism and equal treatment within the legislative framework.