Supreme Court 7-judge begins hearing issue whether lawmakers can claim immunity from prosecution for allegedly accepting bribes to vote in House

New Delhi [India], October 4 : A seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday began hearing submissions relating to the re-examination of its 1998 judgement in the P V Narasimha Rao case and to deal with the matter concerning whether a Parliamentarian or legislator can claim immunity from prosecution for accepting bribes for making a speech or vote in a particular manner in the House.
A bench of seven-judge headed by the Chief Justice of India started to re-evaluate its 1998 judgement. Other judges on the bench are Justices AS Bopanna, MM Sundresh, PS Narasimha, JB Pardiwala, Sanjay Kumar, and Manoj Misra.
Senior Advocate Raja Ramachandran has taken the top court through the various facts related to the case.
He appealed to the Constitution Bench not to interfere with judgement in the PV Narasimha Rao case and called it a carefully considered and well-reasoned judgement.
During the hearing, CJI Chandrachud remarked that applying immunity to only speaking will make it very restrictive.
Senior Advocate PS Patwalia argued that the object of Article 105 was not to protect a Member of Parliament from ordinary criminal law but to protect the integrity of the legislative process.
The hearing on the issue will continue tomorrow too.
Earlier, a five-judge bench referred the matter to a larger bench of seven-judge to deal with the issues, observing that it was an important issue having a significant bearing on the morality of polity.
The court said that the purpose of Article 105(2) and Article 194(2) is to ensure that members of parliament and state legislatures are able to discharge duties in an atmosphere of freedom without fear of the consequences.
The 7-judge bench will reconsider the ruling in the JMM MPs bribery case, in which the MPs allegedly took bribes to vote in support of the Narsimha Rao government in 1993.
The court order came after hearing the submission made by lawyers connected to the matter.
The issue arose when the five-judge Constitution Bench, comprising CJI Chandrachud, was dealing with the issues.
Other judges on the bench are Justices AS Bopanna, MM Sundresh, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra.
On March 7, 2019, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court referred the matter to a larger bench, considering the wide ramifications of the question that has arisen. The court had then observed that the doubts raised and the issue being a matter of substantial public importance, the matter required to be considered by a larger bench.
The issue was raised while the court was hearing a petition filed by politician Sita Soren. Sita Soren has sought the criminal prosecution launched against her to be nullified on a claim of immunity under Article 194(2) of the Constitution of India.
The charges against Sita Soren were that she had allegedly accepted a bribe to vote in favour of a particular candidate in the Rajya Sabha election that was held sometime in 2012 in Jharkhand.