Parliament has exclusive power to punish an erring member: AG

New Delhi, Sep 20 (UNI) Attorney General of India today told the Supreme Court that acceptance of bribe by a member of the house constituted contempt of the house and the Parliament has exclusive jurisdiction to punish its erring member and expulsion is one of the punishments.

Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium arguing for the Attorney General contended before the five judge constitution bench headed by the Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal that the house has the exclusive jurisdiction to take cognisance of the acts of omission and commission indulged in by its members which lower the dignity of the house.

Subramanium also told the court that the action of the Lok Sabha Speaker which is in fact an act of the house is not subject even to the jurisdiction of the Election Commission as the expelled member's right to contest election remains intact while that of a disqualified member is lost for a particular period of time.

Other judges on the bench are Justices K G Balakrishnan, C K Thakker, R V Raveendran and D K Jain.

He also pleaded that even in Keshav Singh's case this court has ceded power of contempt of the house to the Parliament and power of punishment has also to be ceded to Parliament once the power of launching contempt of the house have been given to Parliament against its members as well non-members.

Referring to Article 9 of the Bill of Rights, ASG submitted powers, privileges and immunity enjoyed by the members of the house for their speeches and actions inside the house was part of freedom of speech.

The court was hearing petitions filed by 11 expelled members of Parliament one from Rajya Sabha and ten from Lok Sabha- for their alleged involvement in 'cash-for-query' scam challenging the order of the Speaker dated Dec 23,2005 ordering their expulsion for taking bribes for raising questions in Parliament.

It may be noted here that the apex court had not given permission to the Election Commission to hold by-elections to the ten Lok Sabha seats which had fallen vacant following the expulsion of the sitting MPs.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had refused to subject his decision to the judicial review on the grounds that his action was not subject to judicial scrutiny.

The court, however, issued notices and decided to examine the issue.

The arguments remained inconclusive and will continue tomorrow.

UNI AKS/SC RP KN1845