The Parliament in India and the State Legislatures alike have viewed gross acts of misdemeanor/misconduct on the part of their Members very seriously and exercised their inherent penal jurisdiction by expelling them from the membership of the Houses to which they belong. Two Members of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), who were recently expelled from the membership of the House as also those members of the House of People (Lok Sabha) who were expelled from Lok Sabha, have filed writ petitions in the Supreme Court/Delhi High Court challenging their expulsion and raising questions over the competence of the House to expel them. This document addresses the question as to what extent the expulsion of members by Parliament or the State Legislatures is justiciable in India and whether the judiciary can interfere in matters of Parliamentary privileges. The file concludes with a short debate on the expulsion of MPs in other countries.

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