SHIELDING THE VOTE OR CLOAKING CORRUPTION? A DOCTRINAL CRITIQUE OF LEGISLATIVE PRIVILEGE POST-SITA SOREN
Swabhiman Swarup, B.A. LLB, 7th Semester, Student at National Law University Odisha (India)
This is a landmark decision in “Sita Soren v. Union of India (2024) 5 SCC 629,” which has introduced a historic paradigm shift in constitutional jurisprudence and has completely up-ended the twenty-six-year-old precedent set in “P.V. Narasimha Rao v. State (1998)”. This judicial loophole in the Indian Constitution has been created by the interpretation of Articles 105(2) and 194(2) for more than two decades, which granted absolute immunity to legislators who took bribes provided that they do their part under the corrupt bargain in the House. The case comment delivers detailed doctrinal analysis of the unanimous judgment of the 7- judge Constitution Bench, which essentially separated legislative privilege from criminal malfeasance. This paper looks at the ratio decidendi and explains how the Court shifted the nature of bribery to be a complete and independent offence in “Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988,” which occurs when an undue advantage is accepted, without any relation to the later enactment. Moreover, this comment challenges the Court’s development of a rigid ‘two-fold functional test’ for parliamentary immunity, and its conscious rejection of antiquated British Westminster practices. In the end, the paper argues that Sita Soren has reestablished institutional morality and systemic probity in India’s representative democracy and has dealt with the possible future conflicts with parallel jurisdiction between judicial proceedings and legislative restrictions on privilege.
| 📄 Type | 🔍 Information |
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| Research Paper | LawFoyer International Journal of Doctrinal Legal Research (LIJDLR), Volume 4, Issue 2, Page 2036–2052. |
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