Can’t check MP’s Parl speech: Punjab resists Amritpal’s parole plea

Days after Lok Sabha member Amritpal Singh moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking temporary release to attend the ongoing winter session of Parliament, Punjab today opposed the plea by asserting that no one could, even indirectly, “pre-clear or restrict” what an MP might say on the floor of the House.The submission by senior counsel Anupam Gupta on behalf of the state came less than a fortnight after he told the Bench that even “a single speech” by the detained MP “can set the five rivers afire”.

Appearing before the Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry, Gupta opposed Amritpal’s parole plea saying “once an elected representative enters Parliament, no undertaking, no administrative assurance, and no judicial condition can curtail his speech”.

“Once he is allowed into Parliament, he has an absolute right to speak anything that he wants. Counsel for the petitioner may in his wisdom and diligence give the court any number of items on which his client will speak. His client is not bound by any such undertaking,” he said.

Gupta, during the course of the hearing, referred to Article 105 of the Constitution which grants powers, privileges and immunities to Parliament and its members, ensuring free speech in debates, immunity from court proceedings for anything said or voted in the House, and the right to publish proceedings, all vital for independent functioning.

The senior advocate said: “You cannot gag anybody. You cannot call in the marshals to prevent him from speaking what he does, what he speaks. The Speaker only regulates the proceedings in the House…”

The submissions came after Chief Justice Nagu asked Amritpal’s counsel RS Bains to indicate the subject he intended to raise and his preparations for it. Bains replied that the MP would speak on floods as more than a 1,000 villages were affected and those suffering wanted someone to speak for them in Parliament. Besides, he had “all the time in the world to prepare,” Bains said. The submissions continued for more than an hour. The matter is now expected to come up again on Monday.