The Supreme Court yesterday cleared the decks for the prosecution of communications minister Buta Singh, former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, former Union minister Satish Sharma and former Chief Ministers Bhajan Lal and Veerappa Moily in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) bribery case.
The accused have been charged with bribing MPs to vote for the Rao-led Congress government during a trust vote in July 1993. However, the recipients of the bribe four MPs of the JMM group and 5 of the Ajit Singh group, barring Ajit Singh were granted immunity from prosecution under Article 105(2) of the Constitution.
A five-member constitution bench laid down that the bribe-taking MPs were eligible for immunity as the Constitution protected them for votes cast inside the House. The only exception was Ajit Singh, who allegedly took the money but did not cast his vote, and therefore could not claim Parliamentary immunity.
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Among the former MPs who were granted immunity from prosecution were Shibu Soren, Shailendra Mahato, Anadi Charandas, Ramlakhan Singh and Suraj Mandal. Progress in the case, hearing of which commenced last year, had been hindered following the posing of a few constitutional questions.
The five judges yesterday gave three differing judgments running into about 300 pages. The judgements answered two constitutional questions referred to the five-member bench by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, which had earlier heard appeals filed by Rao and others.
On the question of whether MPs are public servants, the Supreme Court yesterday ruled in the affirmative and laid down that the sanction of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the vice-chairman of the Rajya Sabha was necessary to prosecute them.
On the question of whether MPs have immunity from what they have done or spoken inside the House, the court again ruled in the affirmative.
Having laid down its verdict, the constitution bench sent the detailed issues to be decided by the three-judge bench according to the principles laid down in yesterdays ruling.
The ruling clears the decks for the case to proceed in the criminal courts, though it may still take years for the case to come to a conclusion. The appeals by Rao and the others before the three-member bench were filed against an earlier Delhi High Court judgment that went against them on both points.
The Supreme Courts judgement yesterday was delivered by a bench consisting of justice S C Agrawal, justice G N Ray, justice A S Anand, justice S P Bharucha, and justice S Rajendra Babu.