New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Monday said it would not engage in an academic exercise while dealing with the interpretation of provisions related to the scope of legislative privileges of MLAs and its effect on the freedom of speech and expression after the Tamil Nadu Assembly said that the impugned resolution of 2003 was already withdrawn in 2004.
The bench asked Ramachandran to place the resolution before the seven-judge bench, and the court will consider it on Tuesday and dispose of the issue. The five-judge bench then recommended that the issue be placed before a seven-judge bench for authoritative determination. One of the pleas titled N Ravi and others versus Speaker, Legislative Assembly, Tamil Nadu raises the question whether fundamental rights override legislative privileges.
The issue concerning the interpretation of provisions related to the scope of legislative privileges of MLAs and its interplay with the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression was referred to a five-judge bench in December 2003. In December 2004, when the matter came up before the five-judge bench, it was informed of the conflicting views on the issue by two separate benches.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana was told by senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, appearing for the Tamil Nadu Assembly, that since the seven-judge constitution is scheduled to sit from Tuesday, it is their duty to bring to the notice of the court that the issue may not survive as the resolution in question was withdrawn. “It is evident that substantial questions of law as to the interpretation of Articles 194, 19, interplay between these two articles, Article 21 and also as to the interpretation of other provisions of the Constitution of India are involved,” the apex court had said in its December 8, 2003 order.
