Nullify order shielding MPS, MLAS in cash-for-vote cases: Centre to SC

The Union government on Thursday implored the Supreme Court to nullify the precedential value of a 1998 ruling that allowed lawmakers to go scot-free after receiving bribe for casting votes or making speeches on the floor of the House, emphasising that any act of bribery outside legislative Houses are prosecutable under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

- Utkarsh Anand

While making the request to declare the 25-year-old judgment in the PV Narasimha Rao Vs State (CBI) case "per incuriam" (rendered in ignorance of a statute), the Centre also proposed that an in-house committee, to be coined as "speech and vote watch", could be a worthwhile alternative to the judicially mandated guidelines that the seven-judge Constitution bench may consider.

As the bench reserved its verdict on the correctness of the 1998 ruling, the Centre maintained that the controversy could be resolved by the top court holding that the Narasimha Rao judgment is "per incuriam" because it failed to take into account the statutory scheme of the PC Act, which criminalises an act of bribery if takes place outside legislative Houses.

"Instead of declaring Rao not to be a good law, this court may have an option of saying that it is per incuriam because it doesn't take into account the statutory scheme of the PC Act... When everything is outside the House, there is no question of privilege being claimed or immunity being established as a defence," solicitor general Tushar Mehta submitted before the bench led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud.