NEW DELHI, April 21: The trial court today issued notice to the CBI to file a reply by tomorrow on a plea by three former MPs seeking discharge from the JMM MPs bribery case in the wake of the recent Supreme Court judgment.Special judge Ajit Bharihoke issued the notice to the agency after former MPs Anadi Charan Das, Abhey Pratap Singh and Ram Sharan Yadav moved an application saying they should be discharged from the case in view of the Constitutional bench judgment which held that MPs are "immune" from prosecution for anything done inside Parliament.Their counsel, Dr Surat Singh, argued that his clients were given a "clean chit" by the Supreme Court under Article 105 (2) of the Constitution and hence should be "immediately" discharged.The five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court had held that under Article 105 (2) "no MP shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of any thing said or any vote given by him in the House or any committee."Bharihoke said he had not yet gonethrough the apex court judgment. Former Law Minister H R Bhardwaj, appearing for former Union Minister Satish Sharma said the SC ruling has laid down that for prosecuting an MP, sanction from the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha chairman is a "must".Bhardwaj said the prosecution should clarify what action is contemplated in respect of obtaining sanction. He said the SC ruling was vertically divided on the issue of "privilege" and "immunity" to the MPs and MLAs. "The apex court has made it clear that MPs and MLAs are public servants and sanction for their prosecution was necessary," he said.R K Anand, counsel for former premier P V Narasimha Rao, said "no further evidence should be recorded until Supreme Court gives a final decision on the issues emerged in the wake of its judgment."The apex court had bifurcated the 21 accused in the case into "bribe givers" and "bribe takers". According to the judgment four former JMM MPs - Suraj Mandal, Simon Marandi, Shibu Soren and Shailendra Mahato - the thenMPs belonging to the Janata Dal (Ajit), Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, Anadi Charan Das, Abhey Pratap Singh, Ram Sharan Yadav, Roshan Lal and Hazi Gulam Mohammed accused of taking the bribe were immune from prosecution as voting inside the House could not be questioned by any court of law.Ashok Arora, counsel for Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, said the court should discharge the accused who have been given "immunity" from prosecution. However, Ajit Singh, who allegedly received the bribe money, could not get immunity as he did cast his vote during the no-confidence motion against the Rao government on July 28, 1993.
