Power of the House to punish its Members for unethical conduct or contempts
- Part 2 -

O Joy Singh *

Referring to this issue Shri Jawaharlal Nehru on October 4, 1951 wrote a letter to the Chief Ministers of the country with the emphasis on the need for Parliamentarians to maintain high standards of behaviour, and it is quoted his words here:

‘Parliament viewed the conduct of Mr Mudgal with extreme disfavour. There has been a tendency in the past not only in Parliament by probably in the State Legislatures also, not to keep to proper standards of behaviour. The Mudgal case is an example and a warning and there must be no laxity shown when any such matter arises. If once the reputation of our legislatures goes down, then democracy itself will be in peril. Therefore, the reputation of theses legislatures as also of our services must be strictly guarded and any misbehavior should lead to enquiry and action.’

On December 19, 1978, during the Janata Party Government, former Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi, Shri RK Dhawan, former Additional Private Secretary to the then Prime Minister and Shri D Sen, former Director of CBI were sentenced to jail till the prorogation of the House of the Sixth Lok Sabha, for causing serious obstruction, intimidation, harassment and institution of false cases by her Government when Mrs Gandhi was the Prime Minister against certain officials who were collecting information to answer a certain question in the House during the previous Lok Sabha (Fifth Lok Sabha) and Smt Indira Gandhi was expelled from the House by adopting a Motion by the House after duly consideration of the third Report of the Committee of Privileges (Sixth Lok Sabha) which was referred to the Committee by the House on November 18, 1977 to make inquiry, investigate and report on the question of privileges. The said Motion adopted by the House on December 19, 1978 is reproduced for general recall herewith:

“That this House having considered the Third Report of the Committee of Privileges, presented to the House on 21st November, 1978, agrees with the recommendations and findings of the Committee contained therein; That Shrimati Indira Nehru Gandhi, Shri RK Dhawan, former Additional Private Secretary to the then Prime Minister and Shri D Sen, former Director of CBI committed a breach of privilege and contempt of the House by causing obstruction, intimidation, harass- ment and institution of false cases against four concerned officers; That she committed a further breach of privilege and contempt of the House by her refusal to take oath/affirmation before the Committee;

That she also committed a breach of privilege and contempt by casting aspersions on the Committee in her statement dated 16th June, 1978, submitted to the Committee.

The House resolves that Shrimati Indira Nehru Gandhi be committed to jail till the prorogation of the House and also be expelled from the membership of the House for the serious breach of privilege and contempt of the House committed by her.

The House further resolves that Shri D Sen, former Director, Central Bureau of Investigation and Shri RK Dhawan, former Additional Private Secretary to the then Prime Minister, be committed to jail till the prorogation of the House for the serious breach of privilege and contempt of the House committed by them.”

However, the said Motion was later rescinded by adopting a Motion in the House of the Seventh Lok Sabha on May 7, 1981. When moving the Motion, the mover of the motion submitted to the House that former president of India, Shri N Sanjeeva Redy, as Speaker of the House, gave a ruling in Mr TN Kaul’s case that a matter of privileges of the Fifth Lok Sabha could not be taken up in the Sixth Lok Sabha; and the said motion adopted by the House on May 7, 1981 rescinding the resolution adopted by the Sixth Lok Sabha on December 19, 1978 is also extracted for general recall herewith:

“WHEREAS the Committee of Privileges of the Sixth Lok Sabha in its Third Report has expressed the view : (a) any person, if engaged in collecting infor- mation asked for by Parliament, should be deemed to be in the service of Parliament and entrusted with the execution of the orders or the performance of the functions of the House even though he is technically not an employee or officer of Parliament;

(b) a person charged with breach of privilege is bound if so required by the Committee to take oath/affirmation and to depose before the Committee and answer any questions regarding the facts of the case;

(c) a person charged with breach of privilege is bound to answer questions even without taking an oath/affirmation, even though that person would not be required to answer any self- incriminatory questions;

(d) an averment in a written statement submitted to the Committee by a person charged with breach of privilege, expressing reasonable apprehension of the influence on the members of the Committee belonging to the ruling party of its openly declared antagonism towards the person involved would constitute a breach of privilege and contempt of the Committee;

WHEREAS the Sixth Lok Sabha by a Resolution adopted on 19th December, 1978 agreed with the above recommendations and findings of the Committee and on the basis thereof held Shrimati Indira Gandhi, Shri RK Dhawan and Shri D Sen guilty of breach of privilege of the House and inflicted on them the maximum penalty possible in violation of the Principle of Natural Justice,

CONSIDERING that
(a) the above findings are in total contravention of Parliamentary rules, precedents and conventions;

(b) they unduly extended the immunity enjoyed only by the officers of Parliament in the discharge of their duties to an indeterminate number of persons totally unconnected with Parliament and constrict and deny to persons charged with breach of privilege and contempt of the House inalienable rights and safeguards guaranteed by the Constitution;

(c) if the above findings are allowed to remain on record they would serve as standing instruments in the hands of any party in power for narrow, partisan political ends of calumny, harassment and public denigration by persecuting its opponents as actually happened in the case of Smt. Indira Gandhi;

(d) the above gross distortions were engineered in the unconscionable misuse of the majority in Parliament in the pursuit of :

(i) a pre-determined design to verify Smt. Indira Gandhi, deprive the electorate of Chikmagalur of its due representation in Parliament, stifle the authentic voice of National dissent from the floor of the House, thus the democratic process;

(ii) to denigrate and to imprison Smt Indira Gandhi;

(iii) to hand out in the guise of privilege proceedings, a finding from the Parliament against Smt Indira Gandhi so that the same may hang as a compulsive pull over the criminal courts in the then impending trial against Smt Gandhi and others on charges based on the same allegations; and

(e) the said proceedings of the Committee and the decision of the House were wrong and erroneous and with a view to correct this distortion and establish correct conventions and precedents for future Parliamentary procedures.

NOW THEREFORE this House resolves and declares that :
(a) the said proceedings of the Committee and the House shall not constitute a precedent in the law of parliamentary privileges;

(b) the findings of the Committee and the decision of the House are inconsistent with and violative of the well-accepted principles of the law of Parliamentary privilege and the basic safeguards assured to all and enshrined in the Constitution; and

(c) Smt Indira Gandhi, Shri RK Dhawan and Shri D Sen were innocent of the charges leveled against them.

AND ACCORDINGLY this House : rescinds the resolution adopted by the Sixth Lok Sabha on the 19th December, 1978.”

In the history of expulsion of member from Rajya Sabha for the first time, most famously, Shri Subramanian Swamy, a Jan Sangh leader, was expelled from the Rajya Sabha in 1976 for his derogatory remarks and conduct by adopting a resolution on November 15, 1976 in the House of Rajya Sabha, which reads as follows:

‘This House, having considered the report of the Committee appointed in pursuance of the Motion adopted by it at its sitting held on September 2, 1976, to investigate the conduct and activities of Shri Subramanian Swamy, Member, Rajya Sabha, accepts the findings of the Committee that the conduct of Shri Swamy is derogatory to the dignity of the House and its members, and inconsistent with the standards which the House expects from its members and resolves that Shri Subramanian Swamy be expelled from the House.’

Previously of its motion adopted on November 15, 1976, a motion regarding appointment of an adhoc Committee consisting of ten members - (1) Shri Godey Murahari, Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha as Chairman, (2) Shri Kamlapati Tripathi, (3) Shri AR Antulay, (4) Shri NK Bhatt, (5) Shri CK Daphtary, (6) Shri Bhupesh Gupta, (7) Shri Suresh Narain Mulla, (8) Shri Bhanu Pratap Singh, (9) Shri DP Singh, and (10) Shri Om Mehta to investigate into the conduct and activities of Shri Subramanian Swamy was moved and adopted in the House on September 2, 1976.

The charges made against Shri Subramanian Swamy were that he had been engaging himself during the past one year and more in activities which are wholly inconsistent with the standards of conduct as expected of a Member of Parliament and carried on since January last in a virulent and systematic anti- India campaign in countries abroad.

To be continued....