By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : Actions of an assembly Speaker and legislators cannot be challenged in a court or before an investigating agency but no other official working under the Speaker enjoys such an immunity, the Supreme Court observed .
The privilege enjoyed by the Speaker will not even be available to the Secretary of Vidhan Sabha, a bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice J M Panchal observed, while admitting a writ petition filed by the Madhya Pradesh Lok Ayukta against the State Assembly Speaker.
“All the actions attributed to the Speaker enjoy immunity. But how can other employees enjoy immunity,” the bench queried senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the Madhya Pradesh Speaker.
The bench rejected the argument of Rohtagi that since the Speaker is incharge of the house, a notice by the Lok Ayukta to the officials under him amounted to breach of privilege.
“Secretary has no privilege. It is only the legislators who enjoy the immunity,” the bench observed on Monday.
The bench also observed that it appears that some of the legislators wanted to protect “rightly or wrongly” the officials served with notice by the ombudsman.