Thread by @barandbench

[Verdict: Kerala Assembly Ruckus]

#SupremeCourt to shortly deliver judgment on a plea by Kerala Govt to withdraw the assembly ruckus case where LDF legislators including education minister V Sivankutty are named as accused.

#assemblyruckus @vijayanpinarayi @VSivankuttyCPIM

V Sivankutty, KT Jaleel, EP Jayarajan, Kunhammad Master, CK Sadasivan and K Ajith are named as accused of indulging in vandalism in the assembly

The plea is against a Kerala High Court order which had dismissed the State's petition against an order of rejection by the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court at Thiruvananthapuram, seeking permission to withdraw prosecution against the accused, including sitting ministers.

The Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah had stated that this case was "not about theft but damage to public property and that the government is the custodian of this property." #supremecourt

Read more: barandbench.com/news/litigatio…

Justice Chandrachud: I have traced history of privileges and immunity in Indian parliament and compared it with the British history.

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: what emerges is immunity of members from criminal law. the purpose is to enable them o perform functions without hindrance fear or favour

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: members are required to stay true to their oath and immunity is to help them discharge their functions freely

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: privileges and immunity is not a mark of status which makes them stand on an unequal footing !

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: Article 19 1 a recognizes individual freedom of speech and express and 101 recognizes such freedom within the parliament and state legislature. this is so that they can function duties and functions which is also about trust

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: privileges and immunity is not a gate to claim exemption from criminal law and that would be a betrayal to the citizens. the withdrawal application was filed by the incorrect reading of Article 194

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: the argument that what happened in the assembly was a form of protest is an incorrect reading of the Narsimha Rao judgment.

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: The magistrate seems to be impressed by privileges and immunity available which is a betrayal of the Constitution. act of members passed the constitutional lines and thus not covered under the immunity

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: when an application under section 325 is filed by public prosecutor it should be seen it is not extraneous to the vindication of the law. public prosecutor is duty bound to act independently.

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: In V Khalid judgment it had to be seen good faith decision is one and not the only consideration. coiurt has to see if manifest arbitrariness will be there if withdrawal is allowed.

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: Committing destruction of property cannot be equated to freedom of speech in the house. allowing withdrawal under these circumstances would amount to interference with normal course of justice for illegitimate reasons.

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: members of state legislature has upon them a public trust and withdrawal of cases will allow an exemption of members from criminal law.

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: Regarding the permission of the speaker, we have distinguished Narsimha Rao judgment and section 197 here has no application and we dealt with privilege claims with video recording, we rejected that.

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: We dealt with Article 361 A and assembly rules and we held that such a ruckus cannot be held to be a parliamentary proceeding. !

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: we hold that Kerala HC has correctly held that admissibility of evidence etc will be looked into by the trial court. We hold there is no merit in the appeals by the Kerala government.

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

Justice Chandrachud: We have noted that as held by Shivnandan Paswan judgment this court is not required to look into the evidentiary aspects of a case. We have also noted how HC relied incorrectly on a minority judgment.

#supremecourt @vijayanpinarayi

[BREAKING] Supreme Court rejects plea by Kerala govt to withdraw cases against Left MLAs for 2015 Assembly vandalism

report by @DebayonRoy

#Kerala #SupremeCourt #keralaassembly @CPIMKerala

Read story here: bityl.co/83kX

Immunity granted to law makers by the Constitution from criminal prosecution for acts done on the floor of the house, cannot be a gate for claiming exemption from criminal law.

@CPIMKerala #keralaassembly