The Supreme Court established guidelines for evaluating legislative actions against members, emphasizing proportionality and fairness. It ruled Sunil Kumar Singh’s expulsion excessive, promoting balanced accountability and democratic participation within the legislature.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (25th Feb) established crucial guidelines for courts to consider when reviewing actions taken by the legislature against its members. The bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh emphasized that determining whether a legislative action is disproportionate is a complex and subjective process, requiring a nuanced examination of each case’s specific circumstances.
The Court acknowledged that a one-size-fits-all approach is impractical when adjudicating proportionality. Instead, courts must exercise their discretion prudently and judiciously. The decision came in a case involving RJD MLC Sunil Kumar Singh, where the Court deprecated his conduct for sloganeering against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar but ruled that his expulsion from the House was excessive.
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The Supreme Court outlined a framework of considerations to determine whether a legislative action against a member is proportionate. These include:
- Degree of obstruction caused by the member during House proceedings.
- Impact on the dignity of the House, including whether the member’s behavior brought disrepute to the institution.
- Previous conduct of the member.
- Subsequent behavior, such as expressing remorse or cooperating with institutional scrutiny mechanisms.
- Availability of lesser restrictive measures to discipline the erring member.
- Intent behind the conduct – whether crude expressions were deliberate or influenced by regional dialect and local speech patterns.
- Effectiveness of the punishment in maintaining decorum, while also ensuring it does not unjustly stifle democratic participation.
- Balancing public interest, particularly the electorate’s right to representation, against the need for discipline within the House.
By following this framework, courts can ensure that legislative actions remain justified, necessary, and balanced, protecting both the integrity of the House and the rights of its members.
The Supreme Court stressed that legislative actions should not be used as a tool for retribution but rather as a means to uphold discipline within the House.
“The primary objective should be to maintain decorum and foster an environment of constructive debate and deliberation. Any punitive measure must be proportionate and guided by considerations of fairness, reasonableness, and due process, ensuring that it does not unduly stifle democratic participation or undermine the representative nature of the institution,”
the Court stated.
On July 26, 2024, Sunil Kumar Singh was expelled from the Bihar Legislative Council (BLC) for his alleged unruly behavior in the House. Singh, a close associate of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, was accused of sloganeering against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during a heated debate on February 13, 2024.
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Additionally, Singh was charged with “insulting the chief minister by mimicking his body language” and questioning the competence of members of the ethics committee after appearing before it. The motion for his expulsion was passed by voice vote, a day after the ethics committee submitted its report.
The Supreme Court ultimately set aside Singh’s expulsion, ruling that the punishment was harsh and excessive. It held that while maintaining order in the legislature is essential, disciplinary actions must be proportionate, fair, and considerate of the rights of elected representatives and their constituents.
This landmark ruling sets important judicial guidelines for balancing legislative discipline with democratic rights, ensuring that punishments imposed on members are neither excessive nor politically motivated.
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