NEW DELHI, Aug 14: Former premier Narasimha Rao told the Delhi high court today that Parliament was the sole authority to take action against MPs who allegedly took bribes to vote in a particular manner, and that courts have no jurisdiction to hold their trial.

Rao's counsel told Justice Jaspal Singh that ``acceptance of bribe by an MP to vote in a particular manner either against or for a bill was a breach of privilege of the concerned House of Parliament and the latter was the sole authority to deal with it''.

The counsel, R K Anand, citing a similar incident from the past, said when any such incident comes to the knowledge of the House, it is fully empowered to probe the conduct of the members against whom allegations of such nature were made. ``It is within the power of Parliament to constitute a special committee besides the privileges committee to find out whether the conduct of the member was unbecoming or derogatory to the concerned House of Parliament,'' he said.

Rao along with 15 others has approached the high court seeking quashing of the charges framed against them by the trial court in the multi-crore MPs bribery case.

CBI had alleged that Rao, in conspiracy with others, had bribed MPs to secure their votes in favour of his government to defeat a no-confidence motion against it on July 28, 1993.

Rao's counsel told the court that a special committee, constituted to probe the conduct of the MPs who allegedly received bribe to vote in a particular manner, would submit a report to the Speaker who would then table it in the House.

Anand said there were instances in Indian Parliament and British House of Commons where members were expelled from the House for taking bribes to table questions. He said Article 105(2) of the Constitution imposes a total ban on the courts from scrutinising what the MPs said or in respect of vote cast by them in Parliament.Y

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.