Parliamentary Privileges and the Indian Inhibition

Abstract

Abstract The parliamentary privileges extended to Indian parliamentarians have long remained a cumbersome power granted to the legislature at both Central and State level. However, this power raises a contentious issue in its current embodiment within the domain of India. Since this particular aspect of legislation is a souvenir of British influence on the Indian legislative system, it gives rise toa dichotomous train of thought. Initially, resistance to codification was justified on the basic of the uncertainty of the drafters of the Constitution with respect to the needs of the future legislations and the desire to keep it flexible. However, recent instances of the invocation of parliamentary privileges in the country have allowed these privileges to exert greater influence over Fundamental Rights, granting exemption to legislators found guilty of offences such as bribery and expediting the need to reach a conclusion on the topic of codification into a separate regulation which entails the existence of these privileges within the Indian definition of law. The aim of this paper is to determine the essence of what the two sides of the conflict are asserting and make a conclusive determination of the stance that will prove the most beneficial for governance in accordance with constitutional provisions of India.