Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on March 5 overruled a 1998 verdict granting immunity to lawmakers from prosecution for taking bribes to make speeches, and cast votes in the legislature.
The unanimous verdict was delivered by a seven-member constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.
The CJI Chandrachud said, “We have independently adjudicated on all aspects of the controversy. Do Parliamentarians enjoy immunity? We disagree and overrule the majority on this aspect.”
In the 1998 verdict, a five-member bench ruled that MPs and MLAs were immune from prosecution for taking bribes to make speeches, and cast votes in the legislature under parliamentary privileges conferred by Articles 105(2) and 194(2) of the Constitution.
However, in a 2012 appeal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Sita Soren accused of accepting a bribe for a Rajya Sabha vote that year, had claimed immunity under Article 105.
