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TMI Blog1960 (8) TMI 69X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the petitioner's Advocate requested the Court to permit him to withdraw the petition and the Court allowed the prayer and permitted the petitioner to withdraw the petition. In each of these petitions the petitioner, who is a journalist by profession and is functioning as the Editor of " the Searchlight ", an English daily newspaper published from Patna in the State of Bihar, impugned the validity of the proceedings before the Committee of Privileges and prayed for restraining the opposite party, namely, the Chief Minister of Bihar as Chairman of the Committee of Privileges, Bihar Legislative Assembly, Committee of Privileges and the Secretary of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, from proceeding against the petitioner for the publication in its issue dated May 31, 1957, of the Searchlight an account of the debate in the Legislative Assembly, Bihar, on May 30, 1957. The facts of the case have been stated in great detail in the majority judgment of this Court delivered by S. R. Das, C. J., in M. S. M. Sharma v. Sri Krishna Sinha ([1959] SUPP.1 S.C.R. 806.). In the opening paragraph of this Court's judgment aforesaid, the parties before the Court have been enumerated and the anomaly poi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he petitioner received a notice that the case of breach of privilege against him would be considered by the Committee of Privileges of the Assembly on February 3, 1959. That hearing was postponed from date to date, until in August, 1959, the petitioner filed his petition under Art. 32 of the Constitution. He contended in that petition that, as a citizen of India, the petitioner had the fundamental right under Art. 19(1)(a) of the Constitution to freedom of speech and expression which included the freedom of publication and circulation and that the Legislature of the State of Bihar could not claim any privilege contrary to the right thus claimed. In effect, it was contended that the privilege conferred on the Legislature of a State by Art. 194(3) of the Constitution was subject to the fundamental right of a citizen contained in Art. 19(1)(a). It was also contended that the first respondent, the Chief Minister of Bihar, who, it was alleged, had control over the majority of the members of the Bihar Legislative Assembly and of the Committee of Privileges, was proceeding mala fide in getting the proceedings instituted against the petitioner for alleged breach of the privilege of the Ho ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... November 23, 1959, amounted to an abridgement of his fundamental right of speech and expression guaranteed under Art. 19(1) (a) of the Constitution and was an "illegal and mala fide threat to the petitioner's personal liberty in violation of Art. 21 of the Constitution of India and that the Committee of Privileges, respondent No. 2 had no jurisdiction or authority to proceed against the petitioner as threatened by the notice aforesaid ". The grounds of attack raise substantially the same questions that were agitated on the previous occasions in this Court. It was contended before us that the petitioner, as a citizen of India, had the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression which included the freedom of obtaining the earliest and most correct intelligence of the events of the time including the proceedings of a Legislature and publishing the same and that no Legislature of a State could claim a privilege so as to curtail that right. It was, therefore, contended that the majority decision of this Court in Pt. M. S. M. Sharma v. Shri Sri Krishna Sinha ([1959] SUPP. 1 S.C.R. 806.) was wrong. In this connection it was also contended that the rule of construction adopted ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... aid after the first decision of this Court which is sought to be availed of as res judicata and that therefore the rule of res judicata is inapplicable. In this connection it may be pointed out that in Writ Petition No. 122 of 1958, Sri Krishna Sinha, Chief Minister of Bihar, was impleaded as opposite party No. 1 in his capacity as the Chairman of the Committee of Privileges of the Bihar Legislative Assembly and opposite party No. 2 was cited as Committee of Privileges, Bihar Legislative Assembly, without any names being given. In the present writ petition, opposite party No. 1 is the same. Opposite party No. 2 is impleaded as the (New) Committee of Privileges of Bihar Legislative Assembly and then a number of names are given including that of Dr. Sri Krishna Sinha, the Chief Minister, as Chairman. Would it make any difference that though opposite party No. 2 is the Committee of Privileges, its personnel is different from that of the Committee of Privileges constituted as it was in 1958 ? In our opinion, it does not make any difference. So long as the Assembly remains the same it is open to the Assembly to reconstitute its Committees according to the exigencies of the business of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... etermined by the previous decision of this Court cannot be reopened in the present case and must govern the rights and obligations of the parties which, as indicated above, are substantially the same. It is manifest, therefore, that the petitioner has no fundamental right which is being threatened to be infringed by the proceedings taken by the opposite party. It now remains to consider the other subsidiary questions raised on behalf of the petitioner. It was contended that the procedure adopted inside the House of the Legislature was not regular and not strictly in accordance with law. There are two answers to this contention, firstly, that according to the previous decision of this Court, the petitioner has not the fundamental right claimed by him. He is, therefore, out of Court. Secondly, the validity of the proceedings inside the Legislature of a State cannot be called in question on the allegation that the procedure laid down by the law had not been strictly followed. Article 212 of the Constitution is a complete answer to this part of the contention raised on behalf of the petitioner. No Court can go into those questions which are within the special jurisdiction of the Legis ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion, for the simple reason that the prorogation of the Assembly does not mean its dissolution. The House remains the same; only its sessions are interrupted by prorogation of the House according to the exigencies of public demands on the time and attention of the members of the Assembly and the volume of business of the Assembly itself. In this connection reliance was placed on the following passage in May's Parliamentary Practice, 16th Edition, p. 279 " The effect of a prorogation is at once to suspend all business until Parliament shall be summoned again. Not only are the sittings of Parliament at an end, but all proceedings pending at the time are quashed, except impeachments by the Commons and appeals before the House of Lords. Every bill must therefore be renewed after a prorogation, as if it were introduced for the first time." The observations quoted above do not support the extreme contention raised on behalf of the petitioner that the proceedings in contempt are dead for all time. The effect of the prorogation only is to interrupt the proceedings which are revived on a fresh motion to carry on or renew the proceedings. In this case, it is not necessary to pronounce upon ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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