Politicians don’t enjoy higher immunity than common citizens: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI, April 5: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that political leaders do not enjoy an immunity greater than an ordinary citizen of the state and they are also not entitled to a higher immunity, while refusing entertain a petition by 14 Opposition parties, led by the Congress, alleging misuse of CBI and ED against opposition leaders and seeking guidelines for the future.
The top court stressed that laying down general guidelines without having relation to facts of a case “will be a dangerous proposition”.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and comprising Justice JB Pardiwala, told senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the political parties, that political leaders do not enjoy an immunity greater than that of a citizen of the state.
“Political leaders stand on absolutely on the same footing as a citizen of the country, they are entitled to same protection… they are not entitled to a higher immunity what is available (to a citizen)… once you concede that, how can we say that you will not exercise the power of arrest unless three fold step is met…,” the Chief Justice of India said.
Citing statistics from 2013-14 to 2021-22, Singhvi said there is a manifold increase in CBI and ED cases against political leaders belonging to the Opposition. To this, the Chief Justice said that the conviction rate is generally dismal.
Singhvi further argued that for the ED, several political leaders have been probed, of which 90 per cent are from the Opposition and added that for the CBI, it is starker — out of 124 investigations, over 90% were from Opposition.
The bench told Singhvi that he is aware of the fact that these statistics only pertain to politicians, “at the same time you are aware of the fact that guidelines cannot apply only to politicians, because they cannot claim any higher immunity…”
“You are saying that statistics which lie at the foundation of the petition pertain only to politicians, now the cause of action for the intervention of this court is that there is selective targeting of Opposition political leaders by the ruling dispensation…,” it said.
As Singhvi agreed to this, the bench noted that the petitioners do not want any special dispensation for political leaders because they are like an ordinary citizen, and they would be subject to laws like any ordinary citizen.
Singhvi submitted that the issue is directly related to democracy and level playing field. The Chief Justice then replied: “The moment you say democracy, basic structure, skewed application of law to political leaders, then it is essentially a petition for politicians…”
After detailed hearing in the matter, Singhvi withdrew the petition and the court dismissed the petition as withdrawn.
The political parties forming the petitioners are: Congress, the DMK, the RJD, the BRS, Trinamool Congress, the AAP, the NCP, the Shiv Sena-UBT, the JMM, the JD-U, the CPI-M, the CPI, the Samajwadi Party, J&K National Conference, together representing 45.19% of the votes cast in the last state/UT Assembly elections, and 42.5% of the votes cast in the 2019 General Elections, and holding power in 11 states/UTs. (PTI)