New Delhi, Feb 25 : The Supreme Court said Tuesday that except for state assembly's speaker and his deputy, the staff of the assembly secretariat enjoyed no immunity from the Lokayukta's investigations into allegations of wrongdoing in activities carried outside the house.
"It is clear that in the matter of the application of laws,all public servants except the speaker and the deputy speaker of the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha for the purposes of the Lokayukta Act fall in the same category and cannot claim any privilege more than an ordinary citizen to whom the provisions of the said acts apply," said a bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh in its judgment Tuesday.
The court quashed two letters issued by the Madhya Pradesh assembly secretariat to the Lokayukta for breach of privilege for summoning its secretary and seeking certain documents in the course of its probe on a complaint alleging award of a road construction contract worth Rs. 2 crore without inviting tenders in 2005.
"We are of the view that the action being investigated by the petitioners (Lokayukta, Justice Ripusudan Dayal) has nothing to do with the proceedings of the house and as such the said action cannot constitute any breach of privilege of the House or its members," Chief Justice Sathasivam said.
In the present case, the court said, "the action taken by the petitioners (Lokayaukta and his officers) is within the powers conferred under the above statutes and, therefore, the action taken by the petitioners is legal.
"Further, initiation of action for which the petitioners are legally empowered, cannot constitute breach of any privilege."
"The petitioners, while acting under the said statute, be said to have lowered the dignity of the very assembly which has conferred the power upon the petitioners," the court said.
"The authority to act has been conferred upon the petitioners under the act by the legislative assembly itself and, therefore, the action taken by the petitioners under the said act cannot constitute a breach of privilege of that legislative assembly."
In the present matter, the Lokayukta "have not made any inquiry against any member of the legislative assembly or the speaker or about their conduct and, therefore, the complaints made against the petitioners by some of the members of legislative assembly were completely uncalled for, illegal and unconstitutional".
The speaker has no jurisdiction to entertain any such complaint, which is not even maintainable, the court said.
"It is clear that the basic concept is that the privileges are those rights without which the house cannot perform its legislative functions. They do not exempt the members from their obligations under any statute which continue to apply to them like any other law applicable to ordinary citizens."
"Thus, enquiry or investigation into an allegation of corruption against some officers of the legislative assembly cannot be said to interfere with the legislative functions of the assembly. No one enjoys any privilege against criminal prosecution," the court ruled.
