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New Delhi, March 02 (HS). The seven-member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will give its verdict on March 4 on an important matter related to the privileges of MPs and MLAs. The Constitution Bench has to decide whether if an MP or MLA takes bribe for voting/speech in the House, can he still escape the legal action. A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud will pronounce the verdict.
The Supreme Court had reserved its decision on this matter on 05 October 2023. During the hearing, Attorney General R. Venkataramani had said that we are considering how to deal with the earlier law that provided some protection to elected representatives. He had said that elected representatives should be free to do legislative work without any hindrance or pressure. At the same time, it has to be seen that the representative does not use his position in such a way that his trust and importance is reduced. We are discussing how to balance them.
During the hearing, the Chief Justice had said that suppose an MLA has taken bribe to vote or give a speech in a particular matter. The court cannot call that vote illegal because it was given by taking bribe. The Chief Justice had asked that suppose a person has been convicted for the offense of bribery. At that time can the court say that his vote should be excluded from counting the parliamentary majority. It's still a valid vote.
Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran had said that the PV Narasimha Rao case had been carefully considered by this Court and now the Court should not interfere as the decision was not ignorant of constitutional morality and there is no basis to reject this view. Apart from the Chief Justice, the bench of seven judges includes Justice AS Bopanna, Justice MM Sundaresh, Justice PS Narasimha, Justice JB Pardiwala, Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Manoj Mishra. In fact, in the 1998 decision given by the Supreme Court in the PV Narasimha Rao case, the decision of the Constitution Bench of five judges exempts the MPs from the lawsuit. Whereas in the 2007 decision given by the Constitution Bench of five judges of the Supreme Court in the case of Raja Rampal, it was said that in the case related to taking money for asking questions in Parliament, he could be permanently expelled from the House.
On September 20, 2023, the five-judge Constitution bench had referred the matter to a seven-judge bench for consideration. While sending it to seven judges, the court had said that this is an important issue having a significant impact on the morality of politics. The Supreme Court had decided to reconsider its decision in the 1998 PV Narasimha Rao case.
Actually, Sita Soren was an MLA in Jharkhand Assembly in 2012. At that time he was being prosecuted by the CBI for allegedly taking bribe to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections. He was accused of taking bribe from a Rajya Sabha candidate to cast his vote in his favor but instead he cast his vote in favor of another candidate. Sita Soren's father-in-law and JMM leader Shibu Soren was saved by the 1998 Constitution bench decision. In which the Supreme Court had ruled that the MPs who had taken money and voted in favor of the Rao government were still exempted from prosecution. However, it ruled that those who had given bribes to JMM MPs were not immune from prosecution.
Sita Soren has claimed protection under Article 194(2) which is similar to Article 105(2) and applies to state legislators. According to Article 105(2) no member of Parliament shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of anything he said or voted in Parliament or any Committee thereof, and no person shall be liable in respect thereof Will not be held liable.