New Delhi: The Supreme Court has set aside a key 1998 ruling, thus removing constitutional immunity for members of parliament and legislative assemblies who have received a bribe for a vote or a speech in the legislature.
A seven-judge bench of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, and Justices A.S. Bopanna, M.M. Sundresh, P.S. Narasimha, J.B. Pardiwala, Sanjay Kumar, and Manoj Misra, have overturned the PV Narasimha Rao order of 26 years ago in which a five-judge Supreme Court bench held that MPs and MLAs could claim immunity for bribes under Articles 105(2) and 194(2) of the constitution. Such lawmakers would be immune from prosecution if they upheld their end of the bargain, LiveLaw noted the earlier order as having said.
In 2012, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Sita Soren was accused of accepting a bribe for a Rajya Sabha vote and claimed immunity under Article 194(2). When the Jharkhand high court dismissed her plea, Soren challenged it in the Supreme Court which heard the case in October 2023.
“The judgment in PV Narasimha Rao which grants immunity from prosecution to a member of a legislature who has allegedly engaged in bribery for casting a vote or making a speech has wide ramifications on public interest, probity in public life, and parliamentary democracy. There is a grave danger of this court allowing the error to be perpetuated if the decision were not reconsidered,” the bench said, according to LiveLaw.
It observed that it was disagreeing the overruling the earlier verdict.
The Supreme Court also said that the offence of bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act is “complete” the moment a bribe is taken and cannot depend on whether the receiver makes good on the promise.
“Corruption and bribery of members of the legislature erode the foundation of Indian parliamentary democracy. It is disruptive of the aspirations and deliberative ideals of the constitution and creates a polity which deprives citizens of a responsible, responsive, and representative democracy,” the court also said, according to LiveLaw.
Prime minister Narendra Modi has enthusiastically welcomed the judgment with an all-caps ‘swagatam‘ or ‘welcome’ on X.
“A great judgment by the Hon’ble Supreme Court which will ensure clean politics and deepen people’s faith in the system,” he wrote.
Modi’s party, Bharatiya Janata Party, has however been criticised for engineering defections in various states like Karnataka, Goa, Manipur and Madhya Pradesh.