Supreme Court to Rule on March 4 on Lawmakers’ Immunity from Prosecution for Bribery in Speech and Voting

The Supreme Court is set to announce its decision on March 4 regarding whether Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) are immune from prosecution for accepting bribes to deliver speeches or cast votes in the legislature.

Following the reservation of judgment on October 5, 2023, a seven-judge constitution bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud will deliver the verdict on this pivotal issue. During the hearings, the Center argued that bribery should not be shielded by parliamentary privilege, emphasizing that lawmakers are not above the law.

The judgement was deferred after extensive arguments were presented over two days by  team of legal experts, including the attorney general, the solicitor general, and amicus curiae P S Patwalia, who assisted the court in the proceedings.

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The seven-judge bench is revisiting the decision made by a five-judge bench of the apex court in 1998 in the JMM bribery case, which granted MPs and MLAs immunity from prosecution for accepting bribes to deliver speeches or votes in the legislature.

This revisitation by the apex court comes 25 years after the JMM bribery scandal rocked the nation. Throughout the hearings, the Supreme Court expressed its intent to examine whether lawmakers remain immune from prosecution even when their actions involve criminality.

The Supreme Court had agreed to review its previous judgment on September 20, 2023, acknowledging the significant implications for the “morality of polity.”

In 1998, a five-judge constitution bench, in its majority verdict in the PV Narasimha Rao versus CBI case, ruled that parliamentarians are shielded from criminal prosecution for speeches and votes made within the House under Article 105(2) and Article 194(2) of the Constitution.

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The issue resurfaced 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 implicated in the JMM bribery scandal.

Sita Soren, accused of accepting bribes to vote for a specific candidate in the 2012 Rajya Sabha election, argued that the constitutional provision granting lawmakers immunity from prosecution should also apply to her.

The Supreme Court, therefore, decided to reevaluate its decision in the JMM bribery case, which involved Shibu Soren, a former Jharkhand chief minister, and four other party MPs who accepted bribes to vote against a no-confidence motion threatening the P V Narasimha Rao government’s survival in 1993.