Origin And Development Of Parliamentary Privileges In England And India

Four ways in which the experience of English parliamentary development and the processes of decolonization during the middle of the 20th century influence contemporary debates in these two crucial jurisdictions.The article contextualizes the spillover of English parliamentary privilege to British colonial India and the subsequent 'migration' of British derived standards of parliamentary conduct to the parliamentary legislative processes in Indian constitution-making and contributions to constitutional law in modern-day India.It begins by discussing the historical trajectory of parliamentary privilege over the centuries before analyzing how modern instances of parliamentary disruption and interventions by the courts have re-opened questions about the limits of parliamentary privilege and prerogative power.The article also singles out the role of key statutes and legal cases such as the Bill of Rights 1689 in England and the Constitution of India, 1950.It traces how, despite the continuity of Anglo-American parliamentary heritage, the contexts of two distinct parliaments at different stages of their history shaped the contours of modern privilege in each case.