SC Says MPs, MLAs Can't Claim Immunity In Bribery Cases; PM Modi Welcomes Verdict

The Supreme Court on Monday said lawmakers cannot claim immunity for taking bribes to make a speech or cast a vote in the legislature.

A seven-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud pronounced the unanimous verdict and overruled the 1998 PV Narasimha Rao case verdict, where a five-judge constitution bench had held that parliamentarians have immunity against criminal prosecution for any speech made and vote cast inside the House under Article 105(2) and Article 194(2) of the Constitution.

Pronouncing the verdict, the CJI said bribery is not protected by parliamentary privileges and the interpretation of the 1998 verdict is contrary to Articles 105 and 194 of the Constitution. Articles 105 and 194 deal with the powers and privileges of MPs and MLAs in Parliament and legislative assemblies.

What Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said

The CJI, who read the operative part of the verdict for the bench, said that bribery is not immune under the articles as it erodes probity in public life.

During the hearing, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said, “Bribery is not rendered immune under Article 105 (2) or 194 of the constitution. Bribery erodes probity in public life.”

“The offence of bribery is agnostic and it does not matter whether a vote is cast in a certain direction or is not cast at all. Bribery is complete when bribery is accepted,” he added.

PM Modi welcomes verdict

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the Supreme Court verdict in the JMM bribery case as a “great judgment”, saying it will ensure clean politics and deepen people’s faith in the system.

Welcoming the verdict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to X and wrote, “SWAGATAM! A great judgment by the Hon’ble Supreme Court which will ensure clean politics and deepen people’s faith in the system.”

CASE TIMELINE

The top court had reserved its judgement on the issue on October 5, 2023. During the arguments, the Centre had submitted that bribery can never be a subject matter of immunity and a parliamentary privilege is not meant to place a lawmaker above the law.

The judgement was reserved after two day-long arguments advanced by a battery of lawyers including the attorney general, the solicitor general, and amicus curiae PS Patwalia, who was assisting the court in the matter. The seven-judge bench is reconsidering the judgement delivered by a five-judge bench of the apex court in 1998 in the JMM bribery case by which MPs and MLAs were granted immunity from prosecution for taking bribes to make a speech or vote in legislature.

The apex court revisited the judgement 25 years after the JMM bribery scandal rocked the country. The top court, in the course of the hearing, said it will examine whether the immunity granted to lawmakers from prosecution for taking bribes to make a speech or vote in Parliament and state legislatures extends to them even if criminality is attached to their actions.

The apex court had on September 20, 2023, agreed to reconsider its judgement, saying it was an important issue having a significant bearing on “morality of polity”.

The issue came under the Supreme Court’s lens again in 2019, when a bench headed by then chief justice Ranjan Gogoi was hearing an appeal filed by Sita Soren, JMM MLA from Jama and daughter-in-law of party chief Shibu Soren, who was an accused in the JMM bribery scandal. The Justice Gogoi-led bench had referred to a five-judge bench the crucial question, noting it had “wide ramification” and was of “substantial public importance”.

Sita Soren was accused of taking bribes to vote for a particular candidate in the Rajya Sabha election in 2012. She had contended that the constitutional provision granting lawmakers immunity from prosecution, which saw her father-in-law being let off the hook in the JMM bribery scandal, be applied to her. She had moved the apex court against the Jharkhand High Court order of February 17, 2014 refusing to quash the criminal case lodged against her.

The three-judge bench had then said it will revisit the SC verdict in the sensational JMM bribery case involving Shibu Soren, a former Jharkhand chief minister and ex-union minister, and four other party MPs who had accepted bribes to vote against the no-confidence motion threatening the survival of the P V Narasimha Rao government in 1993. The Narasimha Rao government, which was in a minority, survived the no-confidence vote with their support.

The CBI registered a case against Soren and four other JMM Lok Sabha MPs but the Supreme Court quashed it citing immunity from prosecution they enjoyed under Article 105(2) of the Constitution.

(With agency inputs)