Power of the House to punish its Members for unethical conduct or contempts
- Part 3 -

O Joy Singh *

It is also made charged against him that through the campaign, he had maligned and had sought to bring into disrepute and contempt, the Parliament, its Members, the Government of India, and generally the image of the nation, in countries abroad. He had described our Parliament as “a captive Parliament with only 33 per cent of the Members attending”, and through speeches and writings, and interviews published in the foreign Press, that he had distorted facts and spread deliberate falsehood concerning the conditions in India and actions of the Government and Parliament are also the charges made against him.

Consequent on the adoption of the Motion by the Rajya Sabha on November 15, 1976, expelling from the Rajya Sabha Shri Subra-manian Swamy, a member elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, ceases to be a member of the Raya Sabha with effect from November 15, 1976.

Many cases for expulsion of Members of Legislative Assembly of the States were happened in India, and one of the instances which could be taken up here is that 10 (ten) Members of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly were expelled from the membership of the House by adopting a motion on the charges for violation of the oath or affirmation made and subscribed as Members bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India under Article 188 of the Constitution of India read with Rule 4(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1986.

The facts of the above case is that as per a resolution of the Executive Committee Meeting of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) resolved in its meeting held on November 9, 1986 at Coimbatore that the portion of Part XVII of the Constitution of India which provides for Hindi to be the Official Language of the Union should be burnt in Public meetings to be held between the period commencing on November 17, 1986 and ending with December 17, 1986 in various places in the State of Tamil Nadu and it has to be published in newspapers and public meetings that Constitution burning agitation had been carried on, some members of DMK, namely — (1) Thiru KJ Anbazhagan, (2) Thiru S Balan, (3) Thiru A Selvarasan, (4) Thiru P Ponnurangam, (5) Thiru Parithi Elamvazhuthi, (6) Thiru M Ramanathan, (7) Thiru R Chinnasamy, (8) Thiru M Abragham, (9) Thiru M. Abragam, and (10) Thiru C. Arumugam had burnt a copy of the said part of the Constitution of India in different public places of the State.

Apart from being an act of violation of the true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India under Article 188 of the Constitution of India read with Rule 4(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, on the charges for - lowering the regard for the Constitution, the regard for the House constituted by it, the regard which a member of the House should have, derogatory to the dignity of the Constitution as well as the dignity of the House and wholly inconsistent with the standards which the House expects from its Members, the House of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly adopted a motion that the said 10 (ten) members of the House are unfit to continue as Members of the House and to be expelled from the membership of the House thereby becoming their seats vacant with effect from December 22, 1986.

One case for question of punishment of Member in the Manipur Legislative Assembly for unethical conduct or unbecoming behaviour of the Member could be unearthed from Manipur Legislative Assembly’s archives is that the case of Late Shri I. Tompok Singh, the then one of the Members of Manipur Legislative Assembly who was suspended his membership from the services of the House for a period of 4 (four) years with effect from August 29, 1990 on the charges for urinating on the chair of the Hon’ble Speaker which amounts to breach of privilege and contempt of the House by adopting a resolution moved by the then Hon’ble Leader of the House, Late Shri RK Ranbir Singh on the basis of a Report by the then Secretary, Manipur Legislative Assembly, Shri I. Manilal Singh and as directed by the Speaker, of which the same was read out by a Deputy Secretary, Manipur Legislative Assembly in the House. After having due deliberate consideration by the House, a motion was adopted by the House of the Manipur Legislative Assembly to penalize Late Shri I. Tompok Singh by suspending his membership from the services of the House for a period of 4(four) years with effect from August 29, 1990. The said resolution adopted by the House is reproduced for our recall here :

“The House considered the charges leveled against Shri I. Tompok Singh, M.L.A., 13-Singjamei Assembly Constituency in depth after hearing the explanation given by the member concerned. The act committed by the member is a clear case of breach of privilege and contempt of the House, which is the first of its kind in Parliamentary history.

The breach of privilege committed by him is very grave and deserves severe punishment. The charges are established. In order to maintain dignity, honour and sanctity of the august House and to uphold the principle of parliamentary democracy and traditions, the House, therefore resolved to penalize Shri I. Tompok Singh by suspending his membership from the services of the House for a period of 4 (four) years with effect from today i.e. the 29th August, 1990. The penalty is proportionate to the gravity of charges.”

Thereafter, however, on the sudden demised of Late Shri I. Tompok Singh by an unprecedented accident of air-crashed on August 16, 1991 in Manipur, the House adopted a resolution on 21-09-1992 to revoke the resolution passed on August 29, 1990 posthumously, and the said resolution merits reproduction here for general recall here :

“That, this House resolved that the suspension of late Shri I. Tompok Singh from the membership by a resolution of the House, for a period of four years, with effect from 29.8.90 be revoked posthumously as a mark of respect to the deceased leader.”

Although, the term ‘expulsion’ has not been defined in the Constitution, Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business or any law relating to elections, many occurrences for expulsion of Members from the House had been happened in India. A Another instance may also be recalled here that the case for expulsion of 10 (ten) Members of Lok Sabha took placed in 2005 after the ‘cash-for-query’ sting operation by a private TV channel in 2005 surfaced, which had witnessed for unethical conduct or improper conduct and unbecoming of members of Parliament resulting their continuance as members of Lok Sabha was indeed untenable.

In this regard, the House of Lok Sabha accepting the findings of the Committee constituted on December 12, 2005 to inquire into the allegations of improper conduct on the part of ten(ten) members of Lok Sabha, namely, Shri Narendra Kumar Kushawaha, Shri Annasaheb M.K. Patil, Shri Manoj Kumar, Shri Y.G. Mahajan, Shri Pradeep Gandhi, Shri Suresh Chandel, Shri Ramsevak Singh, Shri Lal Chandra Kol, Shri Rajaram Pal and SM Chandra Pratap Singh as unethical conduct, unbecoming of members of Parliament and their continuance as members of Lok Sabha is untenable, adopted a motion by the House on December 23, 2005 resolving that they may be expelled from the membership of Lok Sabha.

Further, some other cases for expulsion of Members from the Rajya Sabha which would have to remind is that one Shri Chattrapal Singh Lodha, a BJP MP from Orissa, was expelled from Rajya Sabha in 2006 after the ‘cash-for-query’ sting operation by a private TV channel in 2005 surfaced; and on the charge for non-disclosure of liabilities as an MP of the Rajya Sabha in his declaration forms is a serious misconduct and adds up to a serious picture of unethical behaviour and breach of the code of conduct by one Dr. Vijay Mallya, a Member of Parliament of Rajya Sabha was also expelled from the House with immediate effect from May 3, 2016. Dr. Vijay Mallya will be the 15th MP as the Ethics Committee of the Rajya Sabha has suggested his name for involving of Rs 9,000 core money laundering case.

To be continued....