aditya
11:40
📰 No immunity for acts of vandalism: SC
It refuses Kerala plea in Assembly ruckus case
•The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that lawmakers cannot indulge in criminal acts on the Parliament or Assembly floors and then take cover behind the right to free speech.
•The court refused the Kerala government’s plea to withdraw prosecution of top Left Democratic Front (LDF)leaders accused of vandalism and wanton destruction of public property on the Assembly floor during a Budget speech in 2015.
•“Acts of vandalism cannot be said to be manifestations of freedom of speech and be termed as ‘proceedings’ of the Assembly. It was not the intention of the drafters of the Constitution to extend the interpretation of ‘freedom of speech’ to include criminal acts by placing them under a veil of protest,” a Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah held in a 74-page judgment.
•Legislators cannot unleash violence, run riot in Parliament or a Legislative Assembly and then claim parliamentary privilege and immunity from criminal prosecution.
•Parliamentary privileges and immunities are not “gateways” for legislators to claim exception from the law of the land, especially criminal law, Justice Chandrachud, who authored the verdict, observed.
‘Law applies to all’
•Boundaries of lawful behaviour apply to all, including MLAs who hold responsible elected office in the Legislative Assembly.
•No member of an elected legislature can claim either a privilege or an immunity to stand above the sanctions of the criminal law, which applies equally to all citizens.
•The State government and the accused LDF leaders, including the present Kerala Education Minister V. Sivankutty, who were in the Opposition in 2015, had claimed parliamentary privilege, arguing that the incident occurred inside the Assembly hall. They claimed immunity from criminal prosecution. They argued that the prior sanction of the Speaker was necessary before the registration of an FIR by the police.
•The court dismissed the need for prior sanction from the Speaker as this was not a case of corruption.
•The accused MLAs are facing charges of criminal trespass, mischief and destruction of public property. Televised images from the day of the incident show legislators come to blows on the House floor and hurl chairs, computers and other public property soon after Finance Minister K.M. Mani began his budget speech during the UDF government’s tenure.
