MPs immunity issue for Constitutional Bench

NEW DELHI, MAY 1. A highly-sensitive point of law whether MPs could be prosecuted for voting along a particular line on bribery was today referred by the Supreme Court to a Constitutional Bench.

The issue had assumed importance following a majority judgement in the JMM MPs bribery case that MPs who had accepted bribe could not be prosecuted for their act in Parliament, that is voting.

A three-Judge Bench comprising Mr. Justice S.B. Majmudar, Mr. Justice S. Saghir Ahmed and Mr. Justice K.T. Thomas said the petitioner wanted ``declaration regarding the correctness'' of the immunity provision under Article 105 (2) of the Constitution without disturbing the judgment in the JMM case, and ``we direct that this matter be placed before a five-Judge Constitutional Bench''.

The petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) through Advocate, Mr. Prashant Bhushan, said they were not interested in what had happened in the past but wanted that ``absolute immunity'' should not be granted to the MPs against prosecution.

The senior Advocate, Mr. Anil Diwan appearing for the petitioner said that the menace of corruption was posing a grave threat to parliamentary democracy and every dignitary right from the President and Prime Minister had been expressing concern over this.

- PTI

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