Article 104 of the Indian Constitution apparently reflects on the importance of the oath or affirmation that should be taken by every member of the Parliament before the President of India. 

The reason I said apparently here is that it does not directly talk about the obligation to take the oath or affirmation but rather talks about the downsides of not taking the oath. 

We will discuss Article 104 of the Indian constitution briefly and then will dive deep into it. 

What Does The Article 104 Of The Indian Constitution Say?

Article 104 of the Indian Constitution made provisions about the penalty for commencing the office before any member takes the oath before the President of India.  

In the constitution of India, the Article goes like this, “104. Penalty for sitting and voting before making oath or affirmation under Article 99 or when not qualified or when disqualified If a person sits or votes as a member of either House of Parliament before he has complied with the requirements of Article 99, or when he knows that he is not qualified or that he is disqualified for membership thereof, or that he is prohibited from so doing by the provisions of any law made by Parliament, he shall be liable in respect of each day on which he so sits or votes to a penalty of five hundred rupees to be recovered as a debt due to the Union Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and its Members”

In Detail

1. As we already have a gist of what Article 104 of the Indian constitution says, Let us now focus on the detailed explanation and understand the concept behind it.
2. The aforementioned article says that if a person who has been elected as a member of either of the Houses of Parliament, sits and votes in the sitting of the House shall be penalized. 
3. A person who might be a newly appointed member of Parliament and has not taken the oath before the President of India yet as it has been mentioned in Article 99 of the Indian Constitution should not sit and vote in the meetings of the House or else he will have the amount of Rs 500 for every single he sits in the House under the aforementioned situation. 
4. The same protocol applies to the person who is not eligible to sit in the House of Parliament and is subject to the disqualifications for membership but is sitting so. He also has to pay the amount to the Union Powers as a due debt.                
5. Our Parliament has made some provisions that prohibit a person to sit in the House. Anyone, who falls under those provisions and attempts to sit in the sittings of the House of Parliament shall also be penalized the same way. 

Summing Up

The House of Parliament is a place where all the important decisions are taken on the behalf of people of India. You and I are following all the rules and regulations that have come into power in those Houses. It reflects how important and confidential the place has to be. 

Article 104 of the Indian Constitution is indeed an important Article as it set out penalties to prohibit anyone from joining the House. Even the elected members have to go through the oath ceremony before sitting in the House. 

All these provisions reflect how important the upper house and the lower house of the country are.