SC Set to Rule on MPs’ and MLAs’ Immunity from Bribery Prosecution

New Delhi: A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court is slated to pronounce its verdict on whether MPs and MLAs enjoy immunity from prosecution for taking bribes to make a speech or cast a vote in Parliament of state legislatures on Monday.

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud reserved its judgment on October 5, last year.

During the two daylong 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 judgment was reserved after the bench heard arguments from the attorney general, the solicitor general, and amicus curiae P.S. Patwalia, who was assisting the court in the matter.

Twenty-five years after the JMM bribery scandal rocked the country, the seven-judge bench is reconsidering the judgment delivered by a five-judge bench of the apex court in 1998 in the JMM graft case by which MPs and MLAs were granted immunity from prosecution for taking bribes to make a speech or vote in the legislature.

During the hearing, the bench 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.

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