SC upholds Parliament's power to expel MPs

New Delhi, Jan 10: Sealing the fate of 11 MPs expelled in the cash-for-query scam, the Supreme Court today held Parliament has the power to expel a sitting member for misconduct as also for acts which lower its dignity.

Delivering a majority judgement, the court, however, held that the final interpreter of the validity of the act of Parliament is the apex court and it has the power to judicially examine and resume the actions of Parliament.

A five-judge Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justices K G Balakrishnan, C K Thakker, R V Raveendran and D K jain upheld the expulsion of the MPs by 4-1 with only Justice Raveendran delivering a dissenting judgement.

The apex court held that Article 105(3) of the constitution does not debar Parliament from taking punitive action against its sitting members which include power of expulsion.

Justice Raveendran, however, held that Parliament does not have the power to expel a sitting member as it is not specifically provided in any provision of the constitution.

The Supreme Court, while dismissing the writ petition of the 11 expelled MPs, who include ten Lok Sabha members and one Rajya Sabha member, outrightly rejected the contention of the petitioners that they were not given a proper hearing or an opportunity by the Lok Sabha Speaker before expelling them.

The court noted that the Speaker had constituted a committee which included members from the Opposition too. The petitioners were shown the video footage of the television sting operations and were asked to explain their conduct in taking money for raising questions in Parliament and they refused to avail themselves of the oppurtunity, the apex court pointed out.

Dismissing the petitions as devoid of any merit, the court held that the expulsion is not illegal. ''We find there is no violation of any fundamental rights and there is no illegality, irrationality or perversity involved in the decision of the House and resultantly, the petitions are devoid of merit and are dismissed.'' The expelled MPs are -- Raja Ram Pal, Dr Chatrapal Singh Lodha, Suresh Chandel, Pradeep Gandhi, Yeshwant Giridhar Mahajan, Anna Saheb M K Patil, Chandra P Singh, Manoj Kumar, Ram Sewak Singh, Lal Chandra Kol and Swami Sakshi Ji Maharaj.

Barring Dr Lodha all others were Lok Sabha members. Sakshi Maharaj was a former MP of the Upper House.

The court, in its 357-page judgement considered 19 aspects and held that Parliament has the power to punish its members for Contempt of the House.

''We are of the considered view that the power to punish a sitting member and to regulate the proceedings of the House are the matters in which Parliament has the soul prerogative to take action,''it said.

Notwithstanding the fact that Parliament is a coordinate organ, the court said that it cannot be disentitled from examining legality and constitutionality of its acts. The power of judicial review of the court is however limited to the extent if any illegality, unconstitutionality, perversity or violation of fundamental rights is alleged then this court is duty bound to examine such acts of Parliament as these amounted to trespassing the fundamental rights of the citizens.

The court cited three earlier cases of expulsion of Mudgal, Subramanium Swami and late prime minister Indra Gandhi saying, ''the final arbiter of the acts of Parliament is this court and not Parliament.'' Holding that power to expel is not in conflict with the provision of the constitution, the court said, ''We are unable to understand why the privilege of Parliament should not have power to expel and why should the same be denied to the house.'' With today's judgement, the court has also cleared the decks for holding by-election to ten Lok Sabha seats which had fallen vacant following the expulsion of the petitioner on December 23, 2005.

UNI